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THE ADDRESS 

■2' 

OF THE 

HON. WM. A. GRAHAM 



Pccklcnburg declaration of litkjmtftcnt* 



20th of May, 1775. 



Delivered at Charlotte, on the 4th Day of Feb'y, 1875, by Request 

of the Citizens of Mecklenburg County. With Accompanying 

Documents, including those Published by order of the 

Legislature of North Carolina in the Year 1831. 



Published by order of the Central Executive Committee of the 
Centennial and Monumental Association. 






NEW YORK: 
E. J. HALE & SON. PUBLISHERS, 



MURRAY S . REET. 
1875. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

E. J. HALE & SON, 
[n the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 









& 



LANGE, tlTTLB & Co., 

Printers, Electrotypers and Stereotypers, 
108 to 114 Wooster St., N. Y. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

BY THE COMMITTEE OP THE PEOPLE OP 

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N. C, 

ON THE 

TWENTIETH OF MAY, 1775. 
Viewed in the light of History, American and English, Congressional and Pro- 
vincial, with observations on the characters of the chief witnesses 
who testified of it, as known to the writer from persona] 
acquaintance, or their reputation among 
their contemporaries. 

A MEMORIAL ADDRESS 

At a Mass Meeting in Charlotte, Feb. 4th, 1875, preparatory to its Centennial 
Celebration. 



BY WI. A. GRAHAM. 



I esteem it the duty of some one who has had op- 
portunities of acquaintance w T ith the Revolutionary 
history of the State, and this a fit occasion, to vindi- 
cate the authenticity of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence by the delegates of the people of the County of 
Mecklenburg on the 20th of May, 1775, against the 
attempts recently made to bring it into discredit. 
With some recollections of the discussion of this 
topic, running back more than half a century, I have 
taken no part in it heretofore. The event occurred 
(as I believe it did occur) in the immediate vicinity ' 
of the residence of the families from which I am de- 
scended. Several of my near relatives, including my 
Father, when it was called in question soon after its 
publication in the gazettes of 1819-20, gave their 



4 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

testimony as witnesses who had been personally pres- 
ent at the transaction, with references to some of the 
circumstances of the occasion, as well as to precedent 
and subsequent events. I deemed it proper not to 
participate in the controversy as to the credibility of 
this testimony while these witnesses were alive — the 
more especially as I thought the claim on the part of 
Mecklenburg well sustained by others. But those 
who championed the cause of the State (for it has 
been made a State matter) have all passed away — 
Martin, Jo. Seawell Jones, Foote, Hawks, are no 
longer among the living. The witnesses to whom I 
have alluded, and those others whose evidence was 
then taken, their comrades and neighbors, with whom 
they had passed through the fiery trials of the war 
which ensued, are all likewise dead. We may now 
speak of them without flattery, and, I trust, without 
vanity. If my connection with some of them shall 
induce a suspicion of bias on the one hand, unfavorable 
to impartial consideration, I hope it will be conceded 
on the other that it gave me opportunities of infor- 
mation in respect to their traditions, and to public 
opinion in the region of this occurrence, as far back 
as my memory extends, not accessible to strangers, 
and not possessed by many now surviving. I had 
preferred that the duty of this vindication should 
have been undertaken by other hands, but on consul- 
tation with the Hunters, Brevards, Polks, Alexan- 
ders, and others, whose ancestors were either actors 
in or witnesses of the event in question, though they 
felt that injustice had been done by the publications 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 5 

referred to, and desired that the truth of history, as 
we understood it in the State, should be asserted, 
they were unprepared for the discussion. Of twenty 
copies of the publication, by order of the Legislature 
in 1S30, of the evidence in relation to the Mecklen- 
burg Declaration, directed to be deposited in the 
State Library, but one remains. Of the local news- 
papers, the Western Carolinian, established at Salis- 
bury in 1820, and the Yadkin and Catawha Jour- 
nal, and Miners and Farmers' Journal, published 
in Charlotte at a later period, which may contain ar- 
ticles on this theme when its agitation was fresh, and 
eye and ear witnesses of the event were alive, the 
files are nowhere to be found. The difficulty, there- 
fore, of now procuring all the evidence bearing on 
this subject which satisfied the country fifty odd 
years ago, rises to an impossibility. Enough, how- 
ever, I apprehend, is within our reach to establish the 
authentic character of the Mecklenburg Declaration, 
according to the accepted evidence of historical 
truth. 

The position we maintain is very readily stated. 
It is, that the resistance to British authority, which 
assumed the form of war in 1775, was not begun, or 
waged on the part of the colonies generally, or the 
Congress which represented them, with any view to a 
severance of the empire, before late in the spring of 
1776. Like the risings against Kino- John. Charles I. 
and James II., it contemplated only a reformation of 
abuses and redress of grievances, as British subjects 
under the crown of the monarch, but did not contem- 



6 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

plate a change of government or freedom from the 
dominion of their King and country beyond the sea: 
that North Carolina, and especially the people of 
Mecklenburg, formed an exception to this general sen- 
timent of loyalty. The leading spirits, in that comi- 
ty and elsewhere, were ripe for revolution from the 
beginning. They were opposed to monarchy, had 
little or no attachment to the mother country, were 
chafed by recent provocations in the actual operation 
of the government, and were ready to throw it off at 
any favorable opportunity. Hence their decided and 
manly action in proclaiming Independence on the 
20th of May, 1775, in advance of all the other colo- 
nies. This proud distinction we claim for them, and, 
at the disadvantage of having to meet a challenge of 
this claim at the end of nearly a hundred years from 
the act, and more than the third of a century after the 
last of the attesting witnesses departed this life, trust 
to make it good. 

It may conduce to the better understanding of our 
observations, before proceeding further in the discus- 
sion, to state the condition of the question as to the 
genuineness of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in North Carolina. There are some facts 
which have occurred within the time of living memory 
about which I presume there can be no dispute : 

I. No one, I apprehend, doubts that the men of 
Mecklenburg, who were old enough to remember the 
events of 1775, and survived till 1819 and 1820 and 
1830, believed there had been a Declaration of Inde- 
pendence at Charlotte, on the 20th of May, in the year 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 7 

first mentioned, and that they themselves witnessed 
its promulgation. 

II. That not only was this conviction prevalent 
among those who had remained in that county in the 
interim, but was shared by those who had emigrated 
to Georgia, Tennessee and elsewhere. 

III. That the whole people of Mecklenburg, with- 
out distinction from difference in religious opinion, 
political parties or personal antipathies or rivalries, 
were likewise impressed with this conviction, and 
from early after the year 1820 onward, united in cel- 
ebrating the anniversary of the day of the Declaration 
at Charlotte, with all the demonstrations tending to 
commemorate a great event. Among these celebra- 
tions we have reports of three of the most memora- 
ble. 

In 1825," as we learn from the Raleigh Register, 
an immense concourse attended, and beside a parade 
of the military, an oration was pronounced by Wash- 
ington Morrison, Esq., a lawyer of repute, subsequent- 
ly a Senator from the county in the State Legislature, 
but since deceased : and the religious exercises were 
conducted by the Rev. Humphrey Hunter, who also 
read the Mecklenburg Declaration, of the announce- 
ment of which he had been a witness fifty years an- 
terior, when past the age of twenty, with comments 
on the circumstances which had accompanied it. At 
the public festival of the occasion General George 
Graham acted as President, and Clerk Isaac Alexan- 
der as Yice President, both of whom had given their 

*June 7th, 1825. 



8 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

written testimony, as had Mr. Hunter, as personal wit- 
nesses of the Declaration, and both of whom, like him, 
had done soldiers' duty in the war which followed. Bnt 
the most interesting feature of the day, of which the 
published report informs us, was that a band of Rev- 
olutionary soldiers, numbering from sixty to seventy, 
probably all then residing in this old county of sol- 
diers, marched at the head of the procession with the 
simple badge '75 on the lappel of the coat. 

On the anniversary in 1835, there was probably 
the most imposing assemblage that ever attended a 
like celebration in the State. The Hon. D. L. Swain, 
the Governor then in office, the Hon. Willie P. Man- 
gum, one of the Senators in Congress, were present, 
with many of the most prominent public characters 
of the State, and others, who did not attend in person, 
sent letters of apology. The Western Carolinian, of 
which I have a single number, copying from the Mi- 
ners and Farmers' 1 Journal, printed in Charlotte, 
May 29th, 1835, gives a detailed report of the cele- 
bration, and, among other things, that letters were 
read from Judge Gaston, Judge Puffin, Hon. II. W. 
Conner, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Preston, and Gov. Mc- 
Duftie of South Carolina, Judge White of Tennessee, 
13. Watkins Leigh of Virginia, and others. 

The sentiment accompanying the letter of Judge 
Gaston was as follows: "American liberty — here 
first declared and here most sacredly cherished — 
boldly resolved on — long struggled for and nobly de- 
fended — it must be preserved by the virtue, wisdom, 
vigilance, and union of American freemen." 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 9 

The oration of the day was delivered by Franklin 
L. Smith, a native of Charlotte, a young advocate of 
high promise, who was consigned to an early grave 
in Mississippi, to which State he had emigrated. 
The Declaration w T as read, with appropriate remarks, 
by James W. Osborne, Esq., of Charlotte, subse- 
quently a Judge of the Superior Court, a gentleman 
of acknowledged ability and culture, and probably 
better versed in the local history of that section of 
the State than any one of his time. 

JSTow, as on the former occasion, also appear the 
revolutionary soldiers of that region, 27 in number, 
with the white satin badge of '75, and two regiments, 
one of cavalry the other of infantry, from Mecklen- 
burg and Cabarrus counties, they constituting the old 
Mecklenburg of 1775. 

Again in 1857 was another grand celebration of 
the day, when Rev. Dr. F. L. Hawks, then residing 
in New York, but retaining an affection for his native 
State which never flagged in defending her fame, in- 
terest, and honor, delivered an oration in which he 
elaborately considered the evidence of the truth of 
this act of patriotism of the people of Mecklenburg, 
and boldly combated the objections which had been 
urged against it. Gov. Swain, at this time President 
of the University, accompanied Dr. Hawks to this 
celebration, and at the festival of the day made an 
address which was not understood to imply any doubt 
of the positions assumed by him. 

This oration was only a week or two later delivered 
by Dr. Hawks on the day preceding Commencement 



10 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

at tlie University of the State, to a large audience, of 
which I was one. The public press was then as free 
from objectors as it is now ; all was known then touch- 
ing the evidence of the genuineness of the Declara- 
tion that is known now. But I am not aware that 
then any one took up the gauntlet that he boldly 
threw down. 

The point, however, to which I am now directing 
attention, is, that the men of Mecklenburg, who had 
reached the age of discretion in 1775, and survived 
till 1820 and beyond it, satisfied her entire people of 
the truth of the Declaration which they averred to 
have been made, and induced them proudly to unite 
in its observance as a national holiday. In effecting 
this result, they were doubtless fortified and assisted 
by a tradition, which had made it as much a part of 
the history of Mecklenburg as any other public event. 

IV. More than this, they convinced those best in- 
formed in our history, the most sagacious and intelli- 
gent of the public men of the day, men as little capa- 
ble of being deceived by what was spurious or false, 
as any who have succeeded them, of the same thing. 
In illustration of this, it may be brought back to re- 
collection that the late John Stanly, occupying a 
place certainly among the first of the statesmen, law- 
yers, and men of letters that the State has reared, in 
an elaborate and instructive funeral oration on the 
life and character of John Adams, at Newbern, a 
short time after* the death of Mr. Adams in 1826, 
contained in a pamphlet which may yet be found 
among those who are careful to preserve the memo- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GEAHAM. 11 

rials of literature, takes an extended notice of the 
Declaration of Independence by the people of Meck- 
lenburg on the 20th May, 1775. 

Judge R. M. Saunders, of Raleigh, as President of 
a Convention of Internal Improvements which assem- 
bled in that city in November, 1838, in a memorial 
which this Convention presented to the Legislature, 
referred to it likewise in terms of the highest 
eulogy. 

At the session of the General Assembly in 1842, a 
memorial of a number of citizens who had united to- 
gether under the name of the Mecklenburg Monument 
Association, was presented to that body, praying an 
act of incorporation for the purpose of erecting a 
monument in commemoration of this great event. It 
was signed by a committee in their behalf consisting 
of Frederick Nash, Wm. J. Alexander, D. F. Cald- 
well, James W. Osborne, H. C. Jones, Paul Barringer, 
John Phifer, John H. Wheeler, Isaac T. Avery, 
Michael Hoke, Charles Fisher, Joseph McDowell 
Carson, Robert Strange, James Iredell, D. L. Swain, 
Wm. H. Haywood, Jr., Burton Craige; and the act 
of incorporation was readily granted. 

V. But it was not merely our citizens, including 
those of the highest eminence in intelligence, culture 
and patriotism throughout the State, who were 
charmed into the belief of the truthfulness of this oc- 
currence ; the State itself took up the fame of her 
heroic people of Mecklenburg, as a flower not un- 
worthy to be worn in the garland which decked her 
own brow. At the session of 1830-'31, with a view 



12 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

to perpetuate some evidence of the transaction, certain 
certificates, in the nature of depositions of witnesses 
then living, who had personal knowledge of it, were 
procured and laid before the General Assembly — 
witnesses whose characters were all known through 
their representatives, and who could readily have been 
subjected to cross-examination. These were referred 
to a Committee composed of Thomas G. Polk, John 
Bragg, Evan Alexander, Louis D. Henry, Alexander 
McNeill. This committee made a report affirming 
the evidence to be satisfactory, and directing the 
Governor to cause to be published in pamphlet the said 
report, w T ith an introductory narrative to be prepared 
by himself, together with the Mecklenburg Declara- 
tion, the names of the delegates composing the meeting, 
and the certificates of the witnesses testifying to the 
circumstances attending said Declaration;* also, the 
proceedings of the Cumberland Association; and that 
in a separate pamphlet there should be reprinted the 
Journal of the Provincial Congress held at Halifax 
on the 3d of April, 1776, in which the delegates in 
the Continental Congress from North Carolina were 
instructed to unite in voting for absolute indepen- 
dence, an instruction given in advance of all the 
other colonies. These resolutions further directed 
that copies should be deposited in the Libraries of 
the State and the University, and in that of Congress, 
and transmitted to the Executives of the several 
States of the Union. It is fortunate for the cause of 
truth in relation to this matter, that the then Gov- 

* See Davie Copy, A, pnge 105. 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 13 

ernor of the State was Montfort Stokes, an officer in 
the war of the Revolution, who afterwards held 
many public trusts, including that of Senator of the 
United States, as well as Governor of the State, and 
who in the preface to the pamphlet published gives 
strong corroborative evidence in support of the other 
witnesses, in the statement of the fact, that in 1793 
Dr. Hugh Williamson, of the city of New York, ex- 
hibited to him a copy of the Mecklenburg Declara- 
tion of Independence in the hand-writing of John 
McKnitt Alexander. 

In 1836, on the occasion of revising the statutes of 
the State and printing them for distribution, the 
Legislature enacted, by a law drawn by the late Gov- 
erner Iredell, Chairman of the Commission of Re- 
visal, that a copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of 
Independence, with the names of the delegates, should 
be prefixed to that work. 

In 1846, by a joint resolution, the two Houses au- 
thorized a new edition of the pamphlet of 1830-31, 
concerning the Mecklenburg Declaration, to be pub- 
lished with certain other documents pertaining to our 
Revolutionary history. 

In 1854, upon a new revision of the statutes, they 
again, by solemn act, directed that the Mecklenburg 
Declaration of Independence be prefixed to that 
work. 

Let it be noted, that all of the three acts of the 
Legislature last mentioned, were after the discoveries 
of Peter Force and Jarecl Sparks of the resolutions 
of the Mecklenburg Committee of the 31st of May, 



14 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

1775, and the dispatches and proclamation of Gov. 
Martin, in June and July of that year. 

Thus has North Carolina stamped with the seal of 
her approbation as history, our account of this trans- 
action, as it had long been enshrined in the hearts of 
her people, not only in Mecklenburg, but in the whole 
State, and incorporated with their affection for the 
liberty and glory of their native land. 

What has been the testimony borne of it, by writers 
of history ? And first, by those of North Carolina. 

1. Francis Xavier Martin, a native Frenchman, but 
long a citizen of North Carolina, a compiler of one 
editio7i of her statutes by order of the Legislature, 
before removing to Louisiana, where he was for 
many years an eminent Judge, in the second volume 
of his History of the State, published in 1829, near 
the close of the work (it was continued no further 
than 1776), gives the Mecklenburg Declaration with 
the accompanying circumstances in full. * 

2. Joseph Sea well Jones, in 1834, published his 
volume, a Defense of North Carolina, upon this very 
question, which may now be referred to with advan- 
tage, especially as depicting that condition of dis- 
satisfaction and quarrel between North Carolina and 
the mother country, from which a severance of em- 
pire might have been expected. 

3. The Eev. Dr. Wm. H. Foote, of Virginia, in his 
interesting u Sketches of North Carolina," put forth 
in 1844, also gives full particulars of this great event, 

* See Martin's Copy, B, page 106. 



ADDKESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 15 

with as approving an admiration as if he had been a 
native of the State. 

4. Col. J. H. Wheeler, in his " Sketches of the His- 
tory of North Carolina,'' in 1851, who had resided in 
Mecklenburg or on its frontier for fifteen or twenty 
years while compiling this useful work, gives to this 
heroic act of her provincial inhabitants his cordial 
approbation ; and I am happy to observe that, upon 
the recent attempt to discredit it, he has reiterated his 
decided convictions. 

5. The Rev. Dr. Hawks, to whom every citizen of 
the State should feel indebted for the zeal and in- 
telligence of his interest in behalf of the fame and 
honor of his native land, in a Lecture before the New 
York Historical Society in 1852, and in a still more 
elaborate performance of the same nature at Char- 
lotte, and at the University of the State, in 1857, 
maintained it to the satisfaction of our most ardent 
patriots. 

6. It was recognized in Pitkin's "Political and 
Civil History of the United States." 

7. The Rev. Dr. Augustine T. Smythe, a distin- 
guished Presbyterian Divine of Charleston, S. C, in 
a pamphlet issued in 1847, to which I shall have oc- 
casion again to refer, does not discuss the evidence of 
its authenticity, but affirming that this is clearly es- 
tablished, writes an interesting dissertation to prove 
that both the Mecklenburg and the National Declara- 
tions, in the particulars in which they resemble each 
other, were suggested or taken from "A General 
Confession or General Bond for the Maintainance of 



16 ADDHESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

True Religion and the King's Person and Estate," put 
forth to be signed by the members of the Presbyterian 
Church of Scotland, more than a century before 
American Independence was resolved on. 

S. Lossing, in his " Lives of the Signers of the 
National Declaration of Independence," in a note to 
that of Wm. Hooper, records that as early as the 
twentieth of May, 1775, at a meeting in Charlotte, 
the committee made a Declaration of Independence 
of the British crown, to the support of which they 
pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
honor. On this subject he refers also to his work, 
" 1776, or the War of Independence." 

But it is said this Declaration is denied, or is not 
supported, by the History of Mr. Bancroft. His 
theory, from page 371, etc., of the 7th volume, 
seems to be, that the result of the deliberations of the 
committee is found in the resolutions adopted on the 
31st of May, and discovered by Mr. Force in the Colo- 
nial Office, in England, which he interprets to mean 
Independence. " Thus," says he, "was Mecklenburg 
county in North Carolina separated from the British 
Empire," etc. We are thankful for the admission 
that Independence was effected by the men of Meck- 
lenburg on any day in May, 1775, or by any form of 
resolutions. The critics who quote Bancroft with so 
much confidence, contradict him by maintaining that 
the resolutions of the 31st of May do not amount to 
Independence, separation from the British Empire, as 
he expresses it. These resolutions, as copied by 
Wheeler, page 255, begin thus: " Charlotte town, 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 17 

Mecklenburg county, May 31st, 1775. — This day 
the Committee of this county met and passed the 
following resolves. Whereas, etc. (See C, page 
108.) Signed, Eph. Brevard, Clerk of the Commit- 
tee." 

This is the whole proceeding — the name of no mem- 
ber of the Committee is given unless it be implied 
from the last resolution : "That the committee ap- 
point Col. Thomas Polk and Dr. Jos. Kennedy to 
purchase powder, lead, and flints," shall imply, that 
these two were members, and that Brevard, being clerk 
was also a member. How was this committee ap- 
pointed and brought together, and when ? who com- 
posed it ? who was its Chairman ? or President ? The 
simple resolutions as found published, give us no light 
on these points. Yet Mr. Bancroft had light. He 
satisfies curiosity in respect to them ; but how did he 
get the material for it in these proceedings of the 31st 
of May ? He says, " The People of the county of 
Mecklenburg had carefully observed the progress of 
the controversy with Britain ; and during the winter 
(1774-5), political meetings had repeatedly been held 
in Charlotte. That town had been chosen for the 
seat of the Presbyterian College which the Legislature 
of North Carolina had chartered, but which the King- 
had disallowed ; and it was the centre of the culture 
of that part of the province. Some time in May, 
news was received that both Houses of Parliament, by 
an address to the King, had declared the American 
colonies to be in a state of actual rebellion. This was 
to them evidence that the crisis in American affairs 



18 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

was come, and the people proposed among themselves 
to abrogate all dependence on the royal authority." 
Mark what follows : " But the militia companies were 
sworn to allegiance ; and how, it was objected, can 
we be absolved from our oath." The oath, it was an- 
swered, " binds only while the King protects " — the 
quotation marks are correctly copied. And how, we 
respectfully inquire, did Mr. Bancroft get the report 
of this discussion, except from the evidence of Gen- 
eral J. Graham, in support of the theory of the 20th 
of May, in which the question put in argument, " if 
you resolve on independence how shall we be absolved 
from the oath we took to be true to King George 
about four years ago, after the Regulation, when we 
were sworn whole militia companies together," was 
answered by the reply that " when protection was 
withdrawn the oath no longer bound : and was illus- 
trated by the case of leaves falling from a tree." 

Again we quote Mr. Bancroft : " At the instance of 
Thomas Polk, the commander of the militia of the 
county, two delegates from each company were called 
together at Charlotte as a representative committee. 
Before these consultations had ended, the message of 
the innocent blood shed at Lexington came up from 
Charleston and inflamed their zeal." — Again we ask 
how was Mr. Bancroft informed that Thomas Polk 
w r as commander of the militia of the county, that he 
called for the appointment of two delegates from each 
company, that while their deliberations were going on 
the message arrived of the battle of Lexington, ex- 
cept from the testimony of the Pev. Mr. Hunter, 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 19 

Major Davidson, Captain Jack, and other witnesses, 
as to the meeting on the 20th ? Further he says, with 
a justice in which all concur, that " of the delegates to 
that memorable assembly, the name of Ephraim Bre- 
vard should be remembered with honor by his coun- 
trymen ; he was one of a numerous family of broth- 
ers, and himself in the end fell a martyr to the public 
cause. Trained in the College at Princeton, ripened 
among the brave Presbyterians of middle Carolina, he 
digested the system which was then adopted and which 
formed in effect a declaration of independence, as 
well as a complete system of government." The Res- 
olutions to which the name of Brevard was signed as 
clerk of the committee, give no information as to his 
education, ripening, authorship of the resolutions, and 
of course none as to his melancholy death in his coun- 
try's cause; and the question* remains, from whom 
did Mr. Bancroft derive this information, especially 
as^to the authorship of the resolutions of the 31st of 
May, except from the witnesses, several of them Bre- 
vard's connections and all his acquaintances, who do 
not speak of this authorship, though it is no doubt a 
true inference, but who all concur in ascribing to his 
pen the resolutions of the 20th of May — and it is a 
just inference that he wrote those of the 31st, only 
from the proof we have from these witnesses that he 
wrote those of the 20th. The clerkship of a com- 
mittee does not imply authorship of its resolutions. 
The documentary evidence is dumb in all these mat- 

* See C— Kesolutions on 31st May, page 108. 



20 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

ters ; the verbal testimony of those who speak to the 
resolutions of the 20th is adopted by Mr. Bancroft in 
all things, except as to the day and the form of the 
resolutions of the 20th; and without the approval of 
these witnesses he transfers their evidence to the 
31 st, in regard to which there is no evidence except 
the naked resolutions themselves bearing the latter 
date — the witnesses who do testify, all contending 
that the most memorable meeting was on the 20th, 
and that Independence was resolved on then. And 
I may add. that such, I know, is the tradition in the 
family of the Brevards to which he belonged, and 
that of the Polks in which he married. 

The question is on the bold brave act of resolving 
on Independence. Let it be observed that Mr. Ban- 
croft fully admits that ; and the month; and is only 
at issue with us as to the day and form. He is there- 
fore no authority with the critics who deny any asser- 
tion of Independence, but is against them. 

In addition to Mr. Bancroft, who, when rightly un- 
derstood, affords but slender support to them, our 
opponents present the name of Peter Force as sustain- 
ing their views. Mr. Force was a worthy gentleman 
of the city of Washington, and an editor of a political 
paper in that city about 1S28 ; but I am not aware 
that he left any written work on this or any other 
subject of American history. He and Matthew St. 
Clair Clark, in 1833, I think, entered into a contract 
with the Government to publish the American 
Archives, or documentary History of the United 
States. In the search for documents to publish in 



ADDKESS OP WM. A. GBAHAM. 21 

fulfillment of this contract, he, Mr. Force, found a 
newspaper containing the Mecklenburg resolutions 
already referred to, of the date 31st May, 1775. I 
presume he never did find a copy of those alleged to 
have been adopted on the 20th of May in that year. 
If he had any reasons for doubting the genuineness 
of the latter, except that he did not discover a copy 
in the course of his researches, they have never been 
given to the public. He may have expressed the 
opinion attributed, but the loose conversations of 
any one on such a subject are entitled to little 
weight, and there is no little evidence bearing 
upon it, which, I feel confident, never came to his 
knowledge. 

To discredit the oral evidence of living witnesses, 
or even the traditions of a people, and respect nothing 
but printed documentary proof in a country and at a 
time when no printing press existed within hundreds 
of miles — when but two papers were printed in the 
State, and no copy of a single number of either is 
known to be preserved, is to reduce history merely to 
contemporary annals. 

9. But there are other American historians to 
whom attention should be directed by those who de- 
sign to deal with this topic in candor. Hildreth, a 
very painstaking, accurate, and instructive writer, to 
whom I shall recur at another stage, in his third vol- 
ume, published in 1854, asserts " that the citizens of 
Mecklenburg county (North Carolina) carried their 
zeal so far as to resolve at a public meeting to throw 
off the British connection, and they framed a formal 



22 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM 

Declaration of Independence. But this feeling was 
by no means general." 

10. But what says our great and beloved author, 
the first of Americans who gave to his country a 
character for literature in Europe ; and appropriately 
closed his long and bright career by a Biography of 
Washington, published in 1S57 ? I speak of Wash- 
ington Irving, all of whose works are American 
classics. In the fourth volume of this work, speak- 
ing of the invasion of North Carolina, which had 
been assigned to Lord Cornwallis, he says : " It was 
an enterprise in which much difficulty was to be ap- 
prehended, both from the character of the people and 
the country. The original settlers were from various 
parts, most of them men who had experienced polit- 
ical or religious oppression, and brought with them a 
quick sensibility to wrong, a stern appreciation of 
their rights, and an indomitable spirit of freedom and 
independence. In this part of the State was a hardy 
Presbyterian stock, the Scotch-Irish, as they were 
called, having emigrated from Scotland to Ireland 
and thence to America, and were said to possess the 
impulsiveness of the Irishman with the dogged reso- 
lution of the Covenanter. The early history of the 
colony abounds with instances of this spirit among 
its people. ' They always behaved insolently to their 
Governors,' complains Governor Burrington in 1731, 
' some, they have driven out of the country — at other 
times they set up a government of their own choice, 
supported by men under arms.' It was in fact the 
spirit of popular liberty and self-government which 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 23 

stirred within them, and gave birth to the glorious 
axiom : the rights of the many against the exactions of 
the few. * * * * It was this spirit that gave rise 
to the Confederacy called the Regulation, formed to 
withstand the abuses of power ; and the first blood 
shed in our country in resistance to arbitrary taxation 
was at Alamance in this province, in a conflict be- 
tween the Regulators and Governor Tryon. Above 
all it should never be forgotten that at Mecklenburg, 
in the heart of North Carolina, was fulminated the 
first Declaration of Independence of the British crown 
upwards of a year before a like declaration by Con- 
gress." 

Again : " Cornwallis decamped from Camden and 
set out for North Carolina. * * * * Advanc- 
ing into the latter province Cornwallis took post at 
Charlotte, where he had given rendezvous to Fergu- 
son. 

" Mecklenburg, of which it was the capital, was, the 
reader may recollect, the ' heady high-minded ' coun- 
ty where the first Declaration of Independence had 
been made ; and his Lordship, from uncomfortable 
experience, soon pronounced Charlotte 'the hornet's 
nest of North Carolina.' * * * * 

" Instead of remaining at home and receiving the 
King's money in exchange for their produce, they 
(the inhabitants) turned out with their rifles, stationed 
themselves in covert places, fired upon the foraging 
parties ; convoys of provisions from Camden had to 
fight their way, and expresses were shot down and 
their despatches seized." 



24 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

11. In the recent School History of the United 
States by the Hon. A. H. Stephens, of Georgia (a 
valuable acquisition to our school literature), the Dec- 
laration of Independence at Mecklenburg, on the 
20th of May, 1775, is distinctly acknowledged, and 
full justice is done to the early and manly action of 
the State in the cause of Independence at this critical 
period. 

To these authorities I here annex the testimonial 
of the late President Jackson. My two friends, the 
Hon. Theodore W. Brevard and his nephew Col. 
Isaac W. Hayne, the former Comptroller-General of 
Florida, and the latter Attorney-General of South 
Carolina, until displaced from these offices by the re- 
sults of the recent war, the former residing now at 
Cleaveland Springs, and the latter still pursuing his 
profession in the City of Charleston, in the year 1828, 
when both very young men, making together a tour 
of pleasure and observation in Kentucky and Tennes- 
see, visited the Hermitage. What they then saw 
and heard from its distinguished proprietor touching 
the event in question, I will relate in the words of 
a recent letter from Col. Hayne. "I bore a letter of 
introduction from Col. A. P. Hayne, a personal 
friend and formerly of the military staff of Gen. 
Jackson. * * * * The General received us 
with even more than his usual warmth and cordiality. 
After some inquiries as to my relations (the Haynes) 
he asked my uncle of what family of Brevards he 
was ; and learning that of Capt. Alexander Brevard, of 
Lincoln County, North Carolina, he said he had heard 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 25 

of that family all his life, and that some of them 
were then, and had been for many years, residents of 
Tennessee. He then remarked to Mr. Brevard, 
i Yon know I lived in Mecklenburg, the adjoining 
county to Lincoln, in my youth, and 1 have always 
taken a special interest in that region and its early 
history. I have,' he said, ' in the opposite room a 
copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, framed and hung up, and I think it well wor- 
thy of the position.' He then asked us into the next 
room and pointed out a copy of the Declaration, with 
the signatures attached, printed on satin and in a gilt 
frame. In the course of the conversation he stated 
that the authorship was always attributed to Dr. 
Ephraim Brevard. I have no recollection that any 
allusion was made to any doubt ever having been ex- 
pressed as to the authenticity of the document. Gen. 
Jackson unquestionably treated the incident as a well- 
known fact in the history of that region of country, 
the memory of which he desired to perpetuate." 

Let it be noted, that at the time of this conversa- 
tion, the Legislature of North Carolina had never no- 
ticed the matter of the Declaration, and no publica- 
tions had been made touching it, except the original 
communication by Joseph McKnitt Alexander, in 

1819, and the evidence collected by Col. Polk, in 

1820, and two or three letters collected by Mr. Macon, 
as will be hereafter shown ; neither had Martin's His- 
tory appeared : it came out in 1829. 

Let it also be borne in mind, that Gen. Jackson was 
a native of Mecklenburg, had received his education 



26 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

in Charlotte, and did not emigrate till probably 
twenty-one years of age ; and the inference' fairly 
follows, that the tribute of honor he was paying to 
this act of patriotism in his native land, was induced, 
not by the testimony which had at that time been ta- 
ken in support of its authenticity, but from his own 
knowledge of the reputation of the transaction before 
he removed to Tennessee. He was too young, of 
course, to have been present at its occurrence, but that 
he had heard of it as one of the many incidents of the 
Revolution in Mecklenburg, is in the highest degree 
probable. He, therefore, referred to it as he would 
have done to a diagram of the battlefield of King's 
Mountain, had he possessed one, and spoke of it in a 
like tone of confidence in its reality. How long this 
copy had been displayed in his mansion we are not 
informed. Conceding that the form of the clocu- 
ment may have been derived from the publications 
eight or nine years preceding, it was only a memen- 
to of what, no doubt, he had long been familiar with 
as a fact of history from the repute and concurrence 
of the community in which he was brought up. Con- 
sidering how many of the officers and soldiers of the 
Revolution, after its close, removed from Mecklen- 
burg and its neighboring counties to Tennessee, and 
that a goodly number of these were surviving in 1828, 
there is little question that evidence of a similar na- 
ture to this in regard to the declaration at Charlotte, 
might have been at that time abundantly obtained in 
that State. 

It will be observed that, in the Legislative pam- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 27 

phlet, the testimony of a Mr. Montgomery in Tennes- 
see had been taken as to his knowledge of the fact by 
reputation, but was not published by the committee, 
because they confined the proof to that of witnesses 
personally present at the meeting in which the declara- 
tion was promulged ; though it was a subject in 
which hearsay at an early period was certainly legiti- 
mate. ^ 

Again : about the time that Gen. Jackson left 
Mecklenburg for the "West, Dr. Charles Caldwell, 
another of her sons, took his departure for Philadel- 
phia, where he attained the highest distinction in the 
profession of medicine, becoming an author in the 
science, and a lecturer in the medical schools of that 
city, and subsequently in those at Lexington and 
Louisville, Ky. In the year 1819,- while still in Phil- 
adelphia, Dr. Caldwell published a volume entitled 
" Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of General 
Greene, Commander of the Southern Department in 
the War of the Revolution ; " with an appendix con- 
taining in full the Declaration of Independence in 
Mecklenburg, on the 20th May, 1775 : remarking that, 
" On the authenticity of the document perfect reliance 
may be placed ; " and adding that, with the chairman 
and Secretary of the meeting, as well as with Col. 
Thomas Polk, the writer was w T ell acquainted, and 
knew them to have been capable of all that was vir- 
tuous, patriotic, and daring." 

Whether this book appeared before or after the 30th 
April, 1819, when the first publication of this pro- 
ceeding was made in the Raleigh Register, I am not 



28 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

informed. The author evidently intends to give the 
truth of the transaction the impress of his personal 
testimony, no doubt from the reputation prevailing 
before he emigrated from Mecklenburg, and at a time 
when, if the Alexander article had appeared, in the 
public prints, not a scintilla of evidence had been 
taken in its support. 

After the repeated and decisive action of the State- 
in this matter, and the concurrent recognition of the 
claim of a portion of her people to the renown which 
attaches to it, not merely within her own limits but 
by the great authorities of American History, it natu- 
rally occasions surprise to have seen deliberate and 
labored attempts to write it down in the estimation 
of the present generation, and to convince them that 
the pretension set up by their ancestors to an honor- 
able fame was a myth and a delusion — that, true, the 
act was testified to by certain " respectable old gentle- 
men in a frontier county," but they had reached the age 
of sixty or seventy years, (the average age at which our 
Presidents have gone into office), and their testimony 
is not to be credited ; and that the acquiescence of the 
State and her people, for more than a half century, in 
yielding it their belief, was all deception. This 
assault comes upon us not only after a great lapse of 
time from the event itself, and from the collection of 
the evidence in support of its verity, but at the con- 
clusion of a great war, when those who have shared 
the fortunes of the State have had their thoughts too 
much distracted by the events and necessities of re- 
cent history to give much study to that which is re- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GPAHAM. 29 

mote. It is, therefore, a question, how far it becomes 
ns, in the present state of the affair, to submit to an 
arraignment and be impleaded in a proceeding set on 
foot for no purpose, that I can imagine, except to 
amuse leisure and test our capacity to defend our past 
action on this subject by antiquarian research. It 
takes us unawares, and requires time, labor, and con- 
sultation of authorities, some of them not to be fontid 
in private libraries — to deal with it as if it were now 
new. I may have deceived myself, but with all the 
disadvantages surrounding us, I trust it can be shown 
that we have nothing to lose by reopening the contro- 
versy ; that there are several facts and considerations 
connected with it which have not been heretofore 
presented to the public view, and that, in the end, the 
star of old Mecklenburg and of North Carolina will 
shine the brighter, from having come to the ascen- 
dant in a deeper gloom at the time it rose than she 
herself was then aware. 

Let us see in what manner, and by whom, it was 
first brought to notice in the public prints. 

On the 30th of April, 1819, the paper purporting 
to contain a copy of the proceedings of the meeting 
of the committee of the peoj^le of Mecklenburg, in 
Charlotte, on the 20th May, 1775, and their resolu- 
tions of Independence, appeared in the Raleigh Regis- 
ter, in a communication from Dr. Joseph McKnitt 
Alexander, a prominent citizen of Mecklenburg, 
signed Joseph McKnitt, a signature which he is well 
known to have often used, omitting his surname, from 
the commonness of the name of Alexander in that re- 



30 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

gion, and by the same designation he was frequently 
spoken of and addressed.* Along with it, as another 
relic of antiquity, was sent by him and published in 
the same paper, a copy of a proclamation of the Roy- 
al Governor, Josiah Martin, dated " Charlotte Town, 
October 3d, 1780," while the army of Lord Cornwal- 
lis occupied that town. On this latter I may, in the 
sequel, make a further remark. The first of the 
above-mentioned papers was prefaced by an editorial 
notice, stating that the fact it announced was not 
generally known to the world, but that the editor had 
it from unquestionable authority, and he published it 
that it might go down to posterity. Being copied 
into the Essex Register, of Massachusetts, this paper 
was sent by Mr. John Adams to Mr. Jefferson, with a 
letter remarking that " the common sentiment of 
America at that period was never so well expressed 
before or since." Mr. Jefferson, in a reply dated 
July 9th, 1819, among other observations said : " I 
believe it spurious — I deem it a very unjustifiable 
quiz, like that of the volcano, so minutely related to 
us as having broken out in North Carolina some half 
dozen years ago, in that part of the country, and, per- 
haps, in that very county of Mecklenburg, for I do 

* He was a graduate of Princeton about 1792, and a well ed- 
ucated physician. His signature, as above stated, was so well 
known, that Gov. Stokes deemed no explanation of it necessary, 
but speaks of him as Dr. Alexander in the publication of 1831. 

Mr. Isaac Alexander, mentioned in these remarks, is character- 
ized as Clerk Isaac, to distinguish him from others, there being 
at that time in that region many Alexanders answering to all the 
usual Christian names. 



ADDRESS OP WM. A. GRAHAM. 31 

not remember its precise locality." After expressing 
doubt as to whether this paper had been really taken 
from the Raleigh Register ; saying that it had not been 
seen by him in the paper of Mr. Ritchie, or the Na- 
tional Intelligencer, nor in Williamson's History of 
North Carolina, nor other authors whom he names, 
and that it appeals to Mr. Alexander who was dead, 
to Caswell, Hewes and Hooper, all dead, he proceeds: 
" When Mr. Henry's resolution, far short of indepen- 
dence, flew like lightning through every paper, and 
kindled^ both sides of the Atlantic, this flaming dec- 
laration of the same date of the independence of 
Mecklenburg county of North Carolina, absolving it 
from British allegiance, and abjuring all political con- 
nection with that nation, although sent to Congress, 
was never heard of. It is not known even a twelve 
month after when a similar proposition was first made 
in that body. Armed with this bold example, would 
you not have addressed our timid brethren in peals of 
thunder on their tardy fears ? Would not every ad- 
vocate of independence have rung the glories of Meck- 
lenburg county in North Carolina in the ears of the 
doubting Dickinson and others who hung so heavily 
onus? Yet the example of independent Mecklen- 
burg is never once quoted." He proceeds to pro- 
nounce Hooper a tory, Hewes very wavering, Caswell 
and Penn firm patriots ; and we quote again : " I 
must not be understood as suggesting any doubtful- 
ness of the State of North Carolina. No State was 
more fixed or forward. Nor do I affirm positively 
that this paper is a fabrication ; because the proof of 



32 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

a negative is only presumptive. But I shall believe 
it such until positive and solemn proof of its authen- 
ticity shall be produced. And if the name of McKnitt 
be real, and not a part of the fabrication, it needs 
verification by the production of such proof," etc. 

With all due respect for its eminent author, he did 
himself and others great injustice in the composition 
of this letter. It is conceived in a spirit of contemptu- 
ousness and carelessness very unfavorable to the as- 
certainment of truth on the question it discusses. 
He does not remember the locality of Mecklenburg 
county, and will not even turn to the map to learn it. 
He does not recollect anything of its history in 1775, 
and will take no pains to investigate it. He does not 
remember even to have heard of the Resolutions of 
the 31st of May, which Mr. Bancroft admits estab- 
lished independence, and which were published at the 
time in at least two newspapers that have been pre- 
served — nor, we must infer, of the resolutions of the 
State of North Carolina, adopted on the 12th of April, 
1776, empowering her delegates to concur in declar- 
ing independence in advance of any other colony; 
otherwise it is to be presumed he would have recurred 
to so conspicuous a fact in remarks on that period. 
Had he turned to Tarleton's Campaigns in America, he 
would have discovered that even in the very crisis of 
the War in 1780 -'81, after South Carolina and Geor- 
gia had been overrun and conquered, that British offi- 
cer declares that Mecklenburg and Rohan (Rowan) was 
the most rebellious district in America — a fact which 
he had proved by wager of battle. Had he consulted 



ADDRESS OF WI. A. GRAHAM. 83 

Lee's Memoirs, or Steclman's American "War, he would 
have found it the centre of some of the most Stirling 
military events of that war — that within a radius of 40 
miles of its capital are situated the scenes of the battles 
of Hanging Rock, Buford's defeat, Sumter's defeat, 
Rocky Mount, King's Mountain, Ramsour's Mill, 
Cowan's Ford : — that the town of Charlotte itself was 
the theatre of a well-contested action between Davie 
and Tarleton's cavalry ; and although Lord Cornwal- 
lis occupied it for a brief season afterwards, he re- 
treated thence in the night upon learning of the de- 
struction of Ferguson at King's Mountain. 

He might further have learned, upon inquiry, that 
so heroic and true had been her inhabitants in the 
cause of independence, that when General Greene 
superseded Gates in command of the Army of 
the South at Charlotte, in December, 1780, with the 
British in his front at Winnsboro', he was able to dis- 
patch Morgan across the Catawba and Broad Rivers to 
the West, and withdraw his remaining force for sub- 
sistence to Cheraw Hills, relying upon the militia of 
Mecklenburg under Davidson as his Central Army, to 
be cantoned with their families and called forth when- 
ever the exigencies of the campaign might require — 
a disposition wholly unmilitary, except for the reliance 
of that great commander upon their fidelity and 
valor. And that in 1781, in addition to furnishing 
her contingent to re-establish the North Carolina 
Continental Line which had all been captured in the 
surrender of Charleston, this county, with Rowan, 
furnished the greater part of three regiments of 
2* 



34 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

South Carolina State Troops under Polk, Hampton 
and Middleton, who fought under Sumter at 
Eutaw.* 

Had Mr. Jefferson inquired into the social and civil 
condition of the county of Mecklenburg in 1775, he 
would have learned that Charlotte was the "centre of 
the culture of that part of the Province" (as Mr. 
Bancroft has expressed it) ; that it was the seat of the 
highest seminary of learning south of Princeton (ex- 
cept the college of William and Mary, in Virginia), 
in the institution of Queen's Museum, and thither 
w T ere sent young men from Wilmington, Camden, 
Winnsborough, Chester, and from the Academies of 
Poplar Tent and Bethany ; that this College was pre- 
sided over by the Rev. Dr. McWhorter, an alumnus 
of Princeton ; that around it were settled Dr. 
Ephraim Brevard, a graduate likewise of Nassau Hall ; 
Waightstill Avery, a graduate of Yale, and William 
Kennon, lawyers of reputation, the former being af- 
terwards elected the "first Attorney-General of the 
State, upon the establishment of the republican Con- 
stitution ; the Rev. Hezekiah Balch, Adlai Osborne, 
and other gentlemen of no mean education ; that the 
spirit of the people was high ; that they had been 
provoked by the long struggle between the Colony 
and Crown concerning the attachment of lands in the 
Province to satisfy debts due from owners residing in 
England ;f by the refusal of the King to approve 
the charter of their College, an act which the Legis- 

* Gen'l J. Graham's memoranda. f Jones's Defense. 



ADDKESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 35 

lature had granted and which he had annulled by- 
royal proclamation ; * by the enforced regulations of 
an Established Church, which at no distant day had 
imposed impediments and delays in the celebration 
of marriages, except by its own clergy; f and, although 
this county had not participated in the Regulation, 
by the exaction of a new oath of allegiance after that 
event, the population being called out for this pur- 
pose by military companies. J To guide this spirit of 
discontent and resistance, they had an ample number 
of educated and intelligent leaders — 

" Stern, heroic spirits, roughly brave, by ancient learning 
To the enlightened love of ancient freedom warmed." 

Had Mr. Jefferson been advised of this attitude of 
affairs, and of the characteristics of this people, his 
incredulity in respect to their action would probably 
have been abated. These are matters of local history, 
to be sure, but it is a question of local history we are 
considering. A knowledge of them is necessary to 
show that the tinder of revolution was ready in that 
section whenever an occasion should arise for the ap- 
plication of the match. 

But his letter of denial demanded proof of the 
declaration of independence alleged to have been 
made. The matter was then taken up by Col. Wil- 
liam Polk (a son of Col. Thomas Polk, a leader in the 
movement of the 20th of May, 1775), who had been 
himself an officer of the Continental Line of North 

* Caruthers' Life of Rev. Dr. Caldwell. 

f Ibidem. J Gen. Graham's Certificate. 



35 ADDKESS OF WM. A. GKAHAM. 

Carolina, who had commenced his military service 
under his father in the expedition against the Scovil- 
ite* Tories in upper South Carolina in the autumn of 
1775, was under Nash at German town, Penn., in 
1777, with Davidson on the Catawba in February, 
1781, and distinguished in the command of a regi- 
ment of South Carolina State Troops at Eutaw, in 
September of that year. He was at this time resid- 
ing in Raleigh and President of the principal Bank of 
the State. He procured and communicated to the 
Raleigh Register, of February 18th, 1820, the certifi- 
cate of Gen. George Graham, Wm. Hutchison, Jonas 
Clark and Robert Robinson, all inhabitants of Mecklen- 
burg, his old neighbors, men of the first character as 
soldiers and citizens, to the effect that they were each 
present at the meeting of the 19th and 20th of May, 
1775, and that on the latter day " resolves were read 
which went to declare the people of Mecklenburg 
county Free and Independent of the King and Par- 
liament of Great Britain, and from that day thence- 
forth all allegiance and political relation was dissolved 
between the good people of Mecklenburg and the 
King of Great Britain ; which declaration was signed 
by every member of the delegation amid the shouts 
and huzzas of a very large assembly of the people of 
the county, who had come to know the issue of the 
meeting. We further believe (say they) that the 
Declaration of Independence was drawn up by Dr. 
Ephraim Brevard, and that it was conceived and 

* From Scovil, the name of a British emissary among them. 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 37 

brought about through the instrumentality and pop- 
ularity of Col. Thomas Polk, Abraham Alexander, 
John McKnitt Alexander, Adam Alexander, Ephraim 
Brevard, John Phifer, Hezekiah Alexander, and 
some others." They further certified that within a 
few days thereafter, Captain James Jack, of the town 
of Charlotte, went as a messenger to bear those re- 
solves to the Congress, etc. The signatures to this 
certificate are 

Geo. Graham, aged 61, near 62. 

¥m. Hutchison, u 68. 

Jonas Clark, " 61. 

Eob't Robinson, " 68. 
A letter from John Simmerson, of Providence, in 
Mecklenburg, addressed to Colonel Polk, January 20th, 
1820, follows this in general confirmation of the facts 
stated in the certificate, with the anecdote that on 
mentioning the subject of the correspondence to an 
old neighbor, he replied, " Och, aye ; Tarn Polk de- 
clared independence long before anybody else." 

The testimony of Captain Jack, of the date of 7th 
December, 1819, who was then residing in Georgia, 
was also procured to the same import with the above, 
and that he had been privy to a number of meetings 
of the most influential and leading characters of the 
county, prior to that at which these resolutions were 
adopted ; that he bore the Declaration to Philadelphia 
and delivered it to Richard Caswell and William 
Hooper, delegates in Congress from North Carolina. 
He also refers to the Rev. Francis Cummins, a Pres- 
byterian clergyman then living in Greene county, 



38 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

Georgia, who was a student in Charlotte at the time 
of the adoption of said resolutions, as a person who 
was well acquainted with the proceedings in question, 
and as also having a recollection of them. 

The Hon. Nathaniel Macon, then a Senator in 
Congress from North Carolina, w T as communicated 
with in reference to the matter, and entered, upon the 
inquiry in a patriotic spirit, and through him the cer- 
tificate of Mr. Cummins was obtained, and is found 
in the State publication of 1830-31, addressed to Mr. 
Macon. Through him, also, a second letter was ob- 
tained from Captain Jack. (See D, page 142.) Though 
Col. Polk, as I have been informed, also furnished his 
own certificate in corroboration of these, I regret not 
to find it among the published testimony of 1830, and 
can only suggest that inasmuch as a prominent part 
in the great drama had been acted by his father, and 
the chairman of the committee of the Legislature was 
his son, and the proof was ample without his recol- 
lections, he caused it to be omitted from motives of 
delicacy. That he felt a deep interest in the establish- 
ment of the fact, and continued to do so till his 
death, there is abundant evidence.* 

* In an article on this topic, in the April number of the 
North American Review for 1874, by Dr. J. C. Welling, of 
Columbian College, D. C, it is represented, that Col. Polk pro- 
cured evidence to contradict some points of John McKnitt Alex- 
ander's story, and himself left no written statement as to the 
matter in question. We have seen how earnestly he took up 
the controversy, which had been opened by the letter of Mr. 
Jefferson, and what testimony he procured. It is difficult to 
perceive in what particular this testimony contradicts the ac- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 39 

We are not informed that Mr. Jefferson ever re- 
curred to the subject again. No one in Mecklen- 
burg appeared to contradict it. The Raleigh Reg- 
ister expressed the decided opinion "that no doubt 
can now exist of the truth and genuineness of the 
Declaration of the 20th May, 1775," and it seemed 

count of Alexander, or in what it was intended to have that ef- 
fect, 

General Thomas G. Polk, the eldest son of the same Col. Wm. 
Polk, was chairman of the committee in the Legislature, which 
prepared for publication the pamphlet of 1830-31, being then 
a member from the county of Rowan, and a lodger in the house 
of his father in Ptaleigh daring the session. The Hon. Louis D. 
Henry, a brother-in-law of Col. Polk, was also a member of this 
committee. There is, therefore, good reason to believe that 
Col. Polk was fully informed of the statements made in this 
publication before their adoption, and approved them. This is 
certainly the impression of his descendants and connections, 
who are well known in several of the Southern States. 

2. It may be proper here also to notice that in the same article 
General Joseph Graham is said to be the son-in-law of John 
McKnitt Alexander: and it seems to be considered so important 
a fact in the writer's argument, that it is twice or thrice repeat- 
ed. It is not a fact, but a palpable error. An intermarriage 
between a couple of their descendants, years after the death of 
Alexander, in the third generation from him, is the onty ground 
for this surmise. 

3. Equally unfounded is the statement made by the same 
authority, that it is a tradition in the Brevard family, that 
their ancestor, Dr. Ephraim. Brevard, was inspired to write the 
Mecklenburg Declaration by the Westminster Confession of 
Faith. A family whose men, as officers in the continental line 
of North Carolina, followed "Washington upon the Hudson, 
through the Jerseys and Pennsylvania, and Greene at Eutaw, 
and who have borne a like creditable part in civil life, can af- 
ford to smile at such trifling: as this. 



40 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

no longer to he a matter of controversy. Cele- 
brations of the day were held with the enthusiastic 
concurrence of the people. Had there been 
any cavil against this proof at that time (1820), 
it doubtless could then have been greatly corrobo- 
rated. 

By or before the year 1S30, however, Dr. Alexan- 
der, who had made the first publication already men- 
tioned, came to the conclusion that it would be a wise 
precaution to procure confirmatory evidence while 
witnesses were yet living who remembered the event. 
And as John McKnitt Alexander had been heard to 
state that he had placed copies of these proceedings 
in the hands of General Davie, and of Dr. Hugh 
Williamson, Dr. Samuel Henderson, of Charlotte, 
was prevailed on to apply to the family of General 
Davie, who had died in the latter port of the year 
1820, and the copy was found accordingly at his man- 
sion in South Carolina, in the handwriting of John 
McKnitt Alexander, who had expired, according to 
Wheeler, in 1817. The characters of General Davie, 
of his' son Frederic William Davie, and of Dr. Hen- 
derson, afford every assurance that there could have 
been no collusion or imposture in relation to this copy. 
The lateness of its production only shows that this 
being a public affair, and the business of no one in 
particular, but little diligence was exercised in hunt- 
ing up evidence — but the circumstances of the dis- 
covery after such delay, and the proof of handwriting, 
tend powerfully to establish the fact of deposit in the 
life time of General Davie, which the elder Alexander 



ADDEESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 41 

had stated to Judge Cameron in 1801, not long subse- 
quent to the conflagration of his mansion. 

Further evidence was procured in the form of a 
written memoir of the Rev. Humphrey Hunter, 
whose memory was particularly impressed with the 
proceedings, from the fact, that he was at the time 
(20th of May, 1775) a few days over 20 years of age. 
He is positive ^nd precise as to the date, and that the 
resolutions declared Independence. His subsequent 
life to the age of seventy-three years, in his Profes- 
sion as a Minister of the Gospel, was spent in this re- 
gion of country, in intimate association with the other 
Revolutionary worthies of Mecklenburg, and his ashes 
repose in her soil. For his character as a soldier, 
citizen and Divine, see Wheeler's History of North 
Carolina. I remember him well in my youth ; and 
he is yet represented in the person of a son residing 
in Lincoln county, who in scientific attainment and 
moral elevation is among the first gentlemen of the 
State. 

To the same purport are the statements of Capt. 
Samuel Wilson, (Clerk) Isaac Alexander, Major John 
Davidson, of Mecklenburg, Jas. Johnston, of Tennes- 
see, and Rev. Francis Cummins, of Georgia. It will 
be observed that when these statements were made 
no question had been raised as to the meeting having 
been held on the 31st instead of the 20th of May — 
they were given in rejoinder to a denial that any 
meeting at all had been held which looked to inde- 
pendence. Therefore these witnesses do not specify 
the day of the month, but they are all emphatic in 



42 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

the assertion, tliat in the meeting at which they at- 
tended, independence was declared, which is the 
great point at issue. 

Gen. Joseph Graham,* then, of Lincoln county, 
also gave his testimony. His narrative is perhaps 
more circumstantial than that of any of the other wit- 
nesses except Capt. Jack and Mr. Hunter. I regret 
the necessity of speaking of his evidence, but I feel 
that it would be a mistaken delicacy, not to claim for 
it that weight to which it is entitled, in a matter in 
which he makes no pretension for himself, but is giv- 
ing his recollection of a transaction conducted alto- 
gether by his seniors. To the suggestion that he was 
at the time but in the sixteenth year of his age, I re- 
ply that in that time and country, boys often fought 
in the ranks of men at an earlier age than this, as they 
have done at all times on our frontiers ; and that it 
was in this same region, while in military service at 
the age of fourteen, Andrew Jackson received the only 
wound that ever befell him in his great military ca- 
reer, f In the then state of public feeling and public 
events, with two elder brothers, one of whom has 
been already named as a witness in this controversy, 
both soldiers earlier than himself, a youth of his age 
would have been dull of comprehension not to have 
understood the proceedings of that meeting and been 
duly impressed by them. Nor had age affected him 



* The Father of the speaker. 

f The military age established May 4th, 1776, was from sixteen 
to sixty years. — Journal Provincial Congress, p. 45. 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 43 

when lie testified of it in 1830. He had been inter- 
ested in the controversy in regard to it since 1819 
and 1820, and from him was obtained the copy of 
the Proclamation of Governor Martin,* inserted in the 
same paper with the first publication, as before stated, 
of the Mecklenburg Declaration. He was more fa- 
miliar with the history of the Revolutionary war in the 
South, than any one I have ever been acquainted 
with, and at the request of Judge Murphey, in 1820 
and 1821, furnished him from memory with written 
memoranda of the military history of the Revolution 
in the State, to be used in his contemplated history 
of North Carolina, wdiich from study and comparison 
with documents he never saw, I have found singular- 
ly accurate. To his pen in these papers, the State is 
indebted for the rescue from oblivion of the narra- 
tive of the battle of Ramsour's Mill (copied by Wheel- 
er), the connection of the events of 1780-'81, in their 
order of sequence, and the vindication of her fame, 
by the correction of many errors into which the wri- 
ters of history have fallen, to her disparagement. 
Though he never designed them for the press, but as 
mere notes for Mr. Murphey, after the failure of this 
gentleman's undertaking, in which they were to have 
been used, I consented to their publication in the 
University Magazine in 1856, in the hope of preserv- 



* This was found among the title deeds of an aged illiterate Ger- 
man neighbor in Lincoln County, twenty-five miles from Char- 
lotte, in 1816 or '17, on occasion of writing his will, and is copied 
in University Magazine, March, 1856. 



44 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

ing them for some author in the future. How Judge 
Murphey valued them may be seen m his correspond- 
ence with General Graham in the University Mag- 
azine, December, 1854. He had the best opportuni- 
ties to observe what was done and said on public sub- 
jects in Mecklenburg, and occasion for remembering 
them in all this period of her history. In military 
service with his neighbors of the county from 1778 
till the end of the war — her sheriff from early after 
its close till 1788, when for the seven succeeding 
years he was her Senator in the Legislature — her dela- 
gate in conjunction with General Eobert Irwin in 
both of the Conventions which considered the ques- 
tion of the adoption of the Federal Constitution ; and 
though removing to an adjoining county in 1794, he 
kept up a familiar acquaintance in Mecklenburg 
throughout his life. His recollections, therefore, I 
esteem as reliable as any evidence of this nature can 
be. At his death in 1836, at the age of seventy-seven, 
hardly any decay of his faculties was perceptible. Of 
General George Graham it may be stated, that with 
two years greater age, he had equal oj:>portunities of 
information, and for keeping in his memory the events 
of Mecklenburg. He formed one of the party to 
arrest and convey into South Carolina the Tory law- 
yers of Salisbury a few weeks after this declaration 
— was under Col. Thomas Polk in the expedition 
against the Highlanders and other Tories on the Cape 
Fear in February, 1776 ; in that of Eutherford against 
the Cherokee Indians in the summer of the same 
year; under Sumter and Irwin at Hanging Kock; 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 45 

under Col. William Polk in the South Carolina State 
troops at Eutaw ; he, too, was familiar with the men 
of the county as comrades in arms, and as their public 
servant almost to the close of life — succeeded his 
brother in the office of sheriff — was clerk of the Supe- 
rior Court, Major General of Militia, and a member 
of the Legislature in the one or the other House from 
this county, for more than twenty years — terminating 
in 1813. His death occurred, in 1826, with mental 
faculties unimpaired to the last. With Messrs. Wil- 
liam Hutchison, Jonas Clark, and Robert Robinson, 
w r ho united with him in the testimonial given to Col. 
Polk in 1820, my inferiority in age allowed no per- 
sonal acquaintance, but I have assurance that they 
had all been good soldiers of the Revolution, and. en- 
joyed the entire respect and confidence of their con- 
temporaries. 

Equal to these in their claims to credibility were 
Capt. James Jack, of Georgia, Clerk Isaac Alexan- 
der, Capt. Samuel Wilson, Maj. John Davidson, of 
Mecklenburg, Mr. James Johnston, of Tennessee, 
and the Rev. Francis Cummins, of Georgia. It is to 
be observed, that no one of these witnesses in testi- 
fying sought to magnify his own consequence. 
Major Davidson was the only one among them all, 
who had been a delegate in the meeting. He had 
reached a very old age at the time of deposing, but 
gives an intelligent narrative, and did not assume to 
have acted a conspicuous part. All the others declare 
that they were spectators merely, at the council of 
the grave and elderly men of their county — and bear 



46 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

witness of the patriotism and heroism of others, not 
of their own. 

It may be also confidently asserted that this mass 
of testimony would, at the time it was given, have de- 
termined the title of any estate in that county ; and 
if the question were whether a deed which had been 
lost was designed to convey the absolute property in 
law or only an estate for years, or on condition, there 
would have been no difficulty in this evidence in 
maintaining that the entire fee had passed ; and, as 
little that it bore date on the 20th of May, 1775 ; 
and an impartial Chancellor would have directed the 
conveyance to be renewed accordingly. It is, how- 
ever, not a question at nisi prius, to be tried on the 
testimony alone of the witnesses whose certificates 
were taken. 

The witnesses who gave written evidence are but 
a tithe of those who testify to the Declaration of 
Independence, and on the 20th of May, 1775. 
Where are those Revolutionary soldiers, who ap- 
peared, as we have seen, at the celebration of 1825, 
sixty to seventy in number; of whom twenty-seven 
again attended at the celebration of 1835, the sur- 
vivors of the fields of Stono, Eutaw, Camden and 
Hanging Rock at the South, and some of them at 
least of White Plains, Brandywine, and German- 
town at the North ? They were old enough to re- 
member what had occurred in their own county in 
1775, and though, it may be, not personally present 
at the meeting on the 20th of May in that year, to 
have heard by current report of every public event 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 47 

of the times ; and if they had not heard of, and be- 
lieved, this from 1775 onward, who supposes they 
would have joined in the celebrations, or not contra- 
dicted the error ? Moreover, the juniors of these 
who were of middle or younger age, the descendants 
of those, among whom almost every man had been a 
soldier in no holiday sense, and who from the tradi- 
tions of their fathers, knew the story of the Revolu- 
tion by heart, if they had not heard of it, as they did 
of the expeditions of 1775 and '76, who presumes 
they would have yielded an universal belief upon the 
announcement of the fact in a newspaper supported 
by a half dozen testimonials from sources however 
respectable ? The truth is, the publication of Dr. 
Alexander, in 1819, announced nothing that was new 
to Mecklenburg. Her people had this Declaration 
in memory as they had the fame of the men they 
had sent forth to battle for Independence, to whom 
even yet history has never done justice, and therefore 
they seconded its assertion with a unanimous voice. 

Critics may amuse their ingenuity by strictures on 
the certificates of veterans who, as I knew one to re- 
mark, were " better at fiiditino* than writing, and 
could make better marks with their swords than with 
their pens," but they can make no satisfactory plea to 
that grand certificate of the concurrence of all the 
surviving soldiers of the Revolution from 1819 to 
1835, and the harmonious concord of the sons of 
those who had perished in the struggle or died prior 
to the publication in 1819. The old men knew it 
from recollection or common report, the younger by 



48 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

tradition. It is hardly possible that a whole people, 
who may have their subjects of dispute as to other 
matters, should be deceived and deluded into an un- 
divided belief on this. Let us illustrate by an ex- 
ample. It is within the remembrance of many now 
•living, that in 1814 a Regiment of Militia under Col. 
Jesse A. Pearson, being part of a Brigade commanded 
by the above-named Gen. Joseph Graham, was levied 
in Mecklenburg and the adjacent counties, and 
served for six months under Jackson against the 
Creek Indians in Alabama Territory. It is also a 
fact that owing to the want of a timely provision of 
funds by the United States, these troops were delayed 
a month or more at Salisbury, their place of rendez- 
vous, and were therefore too late in arriving at the 
seat of war for the battle of the Horse-Shoe, in which 
they would otherwise have participated. Suppose 
after the lapse of forty-live years, or even now at the 
end of sixty years, a pretension had been set up that 
this Regiment had won laurels, by bearing an active 
part in the battle of the Horse-Shoe, and it had been 
proposed to celebrate it by a public demonstration. 
Independently of other evidence to the contrary, who 
believes that the officers and soldiers of that expedi- 
tion who survived, or the children of the dead, could 
have been engaged in any such imposture or delusion % 
If a contemporaneous exposition is generally the 
best construction of a statute made long ago, because 
it gives the sense of a community living at the time 
of enactment, of the terms made use of by the Legis- 
lature, surely the acquiescence of a people in the real- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 49 

ity of a transaction, which was asserted more than fifty 
years back, and when, if untrue, there were scores of 
living persons who could and would have contradicted 
it, is equally convincing proof of its actual occurrence.* 
Curiosity, however, is excited to learn in what 
manner the memorial of this declaration of inde- 
pendence was preserved to later times. The expla- 
nation is, that the journal of the proceedings of the 
Mecklenburg Committee, originating at the incipi- 
ent period of the Revolution and continued long 
years afterwards as a county organization, which con- 
tained the Declaration of Independence of 20th of 

* At the mass meeting in Charlotte, February 4th, 1875, I was 
shown a number of the Catawba Journal, published in that 
town October 19th, 1824, containing a copy of an Oration by Dr. 
M. W. Alexander, at Hopewell Church in Mecklenburg, deliv- 
ered on the 4th of July in that year, in which the Resolutions 
of Independence by that county on the 20th of May, 1775, are 
inserted in full, with a narration of the circumstances of their 
adoption. The speaker then proceeds as follows: "These are 
transactions with which you, together with the citizens of the 
neighboring counties, have long been familiar ; that have been 
the frequent topics of conversation among us for fifty years. 
These were the proceedings of our fathers, our relatives, and 
fellow-citizens, every individual of whom has descended to the 
tomb — but these are their living deeds of patriotism/' etc. 

This oration also recites the resolutions of the Provincial Con- 
gress at Halifax, on the 12th of April, 1776, empowering* the 
delegates from North Carolina in the Continental Congress to 
vote for absolute independence in advance of the other Colonies, 
and corrects the claim, in Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, that the 
Virginia resolutions of like import, on the 15th of May, 1776, were 
prior to those of any other State. Upon which, the editor re- 
marks that the fact that the instruction of North Carolina to her 



50 ADDRESS OF \VM. A. GRAHAM. 

May, 1775, was preserved in the care of John McKnitt 
Alexander, as Secretary, and was consumed in the 
destruction of his mansion by fire in the year 1800. 
And that prior to its destruction he had endeavored 
to give this document publicity by furnishing one 
copy to Dr. Hugh Williamson, w T ho had announced 
his purpose to publish a history of North Carolina, 
and another to Gen. Wm. E. Davie, a distinguished 
soldier of the Revolution, and subsequently Governor 
of the State. It is probable, also, that he or his son, 
before-named, who w T as of mature years and head of 
a family before 1800, retained still another copy 

delegates in Congress to vote for independence as early as 12tli 
of April, 1776, was new to him, but is verified by a copy of the 
Journal of the Congress which had been left in his office. But 
the Mecklenburg, proceedings, being a well known transaction, 
called forth no comment. 

At the same meeting, the Hon. J. Harvey Wilson, of Char- 
lotte, a former Speaker of the State Senate, in a public speech, 
stated that, as a young lawyer, he had drawn the declarations for 
pensions, under the Act of Congress of 1832, of from twenty to 
thirty Revolutionary soldiers in Mecklenburg, recently after the 
passage of that act, and that nearly all of them in giving ac- 
counts of their lives, as required by the regulations of the Pen- 
sion Office, made allusion to the Declaration of Independence in 
that county on the 20th of May, 1775, and verified the state- 
ment by their affidavits. 

He further mentioned, that about the same time, he had heard 
a description of the scene, at the adoption of the resolutions of 
Independence on the 20th of May, 1775, and the demonstrations 
of the populace which ensued, from Mrs. Smart, a Mecklenburg 
lady of remarkable intelligence, then surviving, who was in Char- 
lotte on that day, and that her narrative corresponded with those 
of the witnesses who gave written evidence of the transaction. 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GEAHAM. 51 

which escaped the conflagration of his house. The 
averment which we* have from Mr. Alexander of his 
delivering the copies to Williamson and Davie is con- 
firmed : 

1st. By the testimony of Gov. Stokes, already cited, 
stating in substance that in the year 1793 Dr. Wil- 
liamson exhibited to him, in Fayetteville, !N". C, a copy 
of the said Mecklenburg Declaration in the hand- 
writing of John McKnitt Alexander, which was 
known to Governor Stokes. 

2d. By the statement of Duncan Cameron, then 
a practicing lawyer, subsequently a Judge of the 
Superior Courts and President of the Bank of the 
State, to the effect that Mr. Alexander had informed 
him of the circumstances of tills declaration, and of 
his placing a copy in the possession of Gen. Davie ; 
and that after the destruction of the original in his 
dwelling, he referred again to the same topic, remark- 
ing that by reason of this deposit " the document was 
safe." Dr. Williamson was a Pennsylvania!], w r ho 
came to the State about the close of the Revolution- 
ary War, and resided in Edenton. He represented 
North Carolina in the Continental and first Federal 
Congress, and in the Federal Convention, after which 
he went to reside in New York. His work, entitled 
a History of North Carolina, published in 1812, 
is confined to the colonial period, and extends only to 
the time of the Regulators in 1771. 

3d. It is likewise corroborated by a letter from Mr. 
D. G. Stinson, a gentleman now above 80 years of 
age, who in a recent letter from Rock Hill, S. C, in- 



52 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

forms me that in 1813, when himself a student in the 
Academy of the Rev. Mr. Wallace of Providence, 
Mecklenburg, a son-in-law of John McKnitt Alexan- 
der, he heard said Alexander, upon occasion of a visit 
of a month at that place, relate the circumstances of 
the Declaration of Independence on the 20th of May, 
1775 ; and the further fact, that having been in 
Philadelphia afterwards in that year, he communi- 
cated the facts and circumstances to Dr. Franklin. 
who expressed approbation of the act. 

Of John McKnitt Alexander, I have no personal 
recollection. That he was one of the leading spirits in 
those days of peril and revolution appears from the tes- 
timony of Gen. George Graham, and others, already 
recited, and from the facts stated by Wheeler, that 
he was one of the delegates from Mecklenburg to the 
Provincial Congress at Hillsboro' in August, 1775, at 
Halifax in April, 1776, her first senator under the 
republican Constitution, in 1777, one of the Trustees 
of the College of " Queen's Museum," subsequently 
changed to " Liberty Hall," and from the correspon- 
dence of the Board of War that Gen. Davidson, at the 
head of the militia in 1780, named his encampment 
in Mecklenburg, " Camp McKnitt Alexander." 

Mr. Wheeler also extracts from a Charlotte news- 
paper of 1837, a paper entitled Instructions for the 
delegates of Mecklenburg county, proposed to the con- 
sideration of the county, dated 1st of September, 1775, 
stated to have been found among his papers, doubt- 
less furnished by his son already mentioned, begin- 
ning thus : " You are instructed to vote that the late 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 53 

Province of North Carolina is, and of right ought to 
be, a free and independent State, invested with all 
power of Legislation, capable of making laws to regu- 
late all its internal policy, subject only in its external 
connections and foreign commerce, to a negative of a 
Continental Senate.' 7 

Whether this was adopted by the county does not 
appear, but the spirit of it was fully carried out at 
the Congress, in April, 1776, of which Mr. Alexander 
was a member, in the resolutions instructing the 
North Carolina delegates in the Continental Con- 
gress to concur in voting for absolute independence. 

That this striking event was not made the subject 
of commentary in our newspapers until published in 
1819, should occasion no surprise to those who have 
studied the history of the State, and know in what a 
confused and neglected mass all its materials then lay. 
If so well informed an American as Mr. Jefferson 
must be conceded to have been, in 1819, did not 
know the position of Mecklenburg on the map, and 
supposed it might adjoin Buncombe, the locality of 
the fictitious volcano played off as a newspaper hoax, 
from which it is one hundred miles distant, with the 
Blue Ridge towering between, who except her own 
people should be expected to know her history ? The 
historians to whom he refers — Williamson, whose 
work- extends but to 1771, Horry, Ramsay, Marshall, 
Jones, Girardin, Wirt, — not one of them had pene- 
trated so far into our public history as to be aware 
of the Resolutions of the 31st of May, 1775, or to 
discover the well-established fact, that North Caro- 



54: ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

lina in her Provincial Congress at Halifax on the 12th 
of April, 1776, instructed her delegates in the Conti- 
nental Congress to vote for absolute independence of 
the British Crown. (I impute no unjust design ; it 
was perhaps our own fault in not causing it to be 
made generally known.) Some of them do mention 
that Virginia gave such instruction in May succeed- 
ing, and suppose that to have been the earliest move- 
ment of the kind. If they were thus uninformed as 
to our public and general history, how are their omis- 
sions authority in respect to a popular meeting, a 
local assemblage in the county of Mecklenburg, some 
months earlier ? The fact is, the revival of the know- 
ledge of the Resolutions at Halifax was made about 
the same time and by the same individual, Dr. Jos. 
McKnitt Alexander, with the publication of the 
Mecklenburg Declaration in the Raleigh Register: 
and it produced as much surprise among writers of 
history, and as much satisfaction among the people of 
the State, as the declaration at Charlotte. It was 
permitted to pass unchallenged upon the authority of 
the Journal of the Congress which Alexander had 
inherited from his father, as would, in my belief, the 
Mecklenburg proceeding, except that the latter was 
questioned by Mr. Jefferson, and was supposed by 
some to lay claim to a domain in which he was en- 
titled to a monopoly — a domain to which in -May, 
1775, as will presently appear, he had set up no claim 
in mind or heart. 

The first forty-five years of the Republic of North 
Carolina did not produce even a pamphlet on any sub- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 55 

ject of her history, except the abortive effort of Wil- 
liamson, heretofore noticed. This utter want of a 
history was felt as a public misfortune by the intelli- 
gent men of the State, and by none more than the 
surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution. In 
1819, or 1820, the Hon. Archibald D. Murphey, who 
in the preceding seven or eight years, as a senator 
from the county of Orange in the State Legislature, 
had aroused the pride and spirit of the people of the 
State on the subject of internal improvement and 
popular education, at the instance of many friends 
undertook the task of writing her history — an office 
to which he was eminently adapted by scholarship, 
patience, and capacity for research, facility in compo- 
sition, a philosophic mind and a zealous patriotism. 
Although, from causes not necessary to be related, 
Mr. Murphey failed in the brief remainder of his life 
to execute this work, the very undertaking accom- 
plished for the State, though in an inferior degree, 
what had been done by historical societies for other 
States, in collecting materials for history, from the 
recollections of old men then alive, the correspond- 
ence and papers found with the families of the dead, 
the public records, and other sources. How barren 
Mr. Murphey then found the field he undertook to 
till, though with abundant materials for improvement 
if sought out from their hidden recesses, we shall re- 
late in his own words, in a correspondence, July 20th, 
1821, with General Joseph Graham, from whom he 
requested reminiscences of the military history of the 
State during the Revolution : 



56 ADDKESS OF WM. A. GKAHAM 

" Your letter to Col. Conner," says he, " first sug- 
gested to me the plan of a work which I will execute 
if I live. It is a work on the history, soil, climate, 
legislation, civil institutions, literature, etc., of this 
State. Soon after reading your letter, I turned my 
attention to the subject in the few hours I could 
snatch from business, and I was surprised to find 
what abundant materials could, with care and dili- 
gence, be collected ; materials which, if well disposed, 
would furnish matter for one of the most interesting 
works that has been published in this country. We 
want such a work. We neither know ourselves nor 
are we known to others. Such a work, well execu- 
ted, would add very much to our standing in the 
Union, and make us respectable in our own eyes. I 
love North Carolina ; and love her the more because 
so much injustice has been done to her. We want 
pride ; we want independence ; we want magnanimity. 
Knowing nothing of ourselves, we have nothing in 
our history to which we can turn with conscious pride. 
We know nothing of our State, and care nothing 
about it. I feel some zeal upon the subject, for a 
large portion of our history now lives only in the re- 
collection of a few survivors of the Eevolution. We 
must soon embody it, or it will be entirely lost." * 

With so much of the materials of the history of the 
State thus in the condition of waifs, floating in the 
memories of a few surviving veterans of the war of 
independence, does it surprise any one that the brave 



* University Magazine, Dec, 1854. 



ADDEESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 57 

men of Mecklenburg, who proclaimed independence 
on the 20th of May, 1775, should thus long have 
shared the fate of those who lived before Agamemnon, 
in not finding an author to celebrate their deeds? 
Caswell, Hooper and Hewes, the delegates in Congress 
to whom the paper was conveyed in Philadelphia by 
Captain Jack, and who might have given it publicity 
had their lives been prolonged, all passed away with- 
in six or seven years after the close of the war, before 
the general government had become settled under 
the Federal Constitution, or the State had even fixed 
a permanent seat of government. 

Col. Thomas Polk, after an active and useful mili- 
tary career, died within the same period. Brevard 
fell a victim to confinement in a British prisonship 
after the surrender of Charleston in 1780, living only to 
reach the house of John McKnitt Alexander in 
Mecklenburg. 

The College at Charlotte was broken up by the 
British invasion ; no newspaper was published in all 
the State west of Raleigh, from the Revolution down 
till the Summer of 1820, unless it was one very tem- 
porarily in Salisbury, and the general impoverishment 
of the country induced by the war was such as to en- 
gross all in the ordinary avocations of business, so 
that no one in that region turned attention to author- 
ship, either in history or any branch of letters. The 
men who had served their country either in council 
or in the field, left to others the task of commemo- 
rating their acts. The historians in other States had 
given but little attention to Revolutionary events in 



58 ADDKESS OF \YM. A. GRAHAM. 

this; and one of the difficulties of illustrating our 
subject at present, is the uncertainty as to how much 
acquaintance with local history in that section is to 
be presumed in the mind of the reader or hearer. 
Of the battle of Kamsour's Mill, no written notice 
was ever taken, until the account furnished by Gen- 
eral Graham to Judge Murphey, and by him to the pub- 
lic in 1820, which has been republished by Wheeler. 
Yet but for this timely and decisive blow by Locke 
and his brave associates in dispersing a body of loyal- 
ists, thirteen hundred in number, and which would 
have grown to thousands, then assembling under 
Moore and Welsh, in order to join the British in 
South Carolina, when exulting in the fall of Charleston, 
and the subsequent massacre of Buford's command on 
our own frontier, the result might have sealed the doom 
of the American cause in the South in the Summer of 
1780. In its salutary effect it was like to the brilliant 
victory at King's Mountain three months later, and 
that at Moore's Creek in New Hanover in February, 
1776. Of King's Mountain, though generally known 
as a decisive victory, no details had been given of the 
campaign which it terminated, the levies of men un- 
der the several commanders, the number of each or- 
ganization, their pursuit of Ferguson, the order and 
incidents of the battle, with a diagram of the field, 
until collected and brought out by the same hand, in 
the report which has been republished in Foote's 
Sketches of North Carolina. 

Again, where are the particulars of the service of 
the men of Mecklenburg, Kowan, and Gaston, in the 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 59 

two British invasions of the State in 1780-81 — the 
action at Charlotte, and skirmishing before and after 
— Mclntire's farm — Cowan's Ford — Torrence's Tav- 
ern — Trading Ford — the investment of General 
Pickens, of South Carolina, with the command of 
Davidson's Brigade after the fall of their General 
(which occasions them to be mistaken by Lee, in his 
"Memoirs of the War in the South," for South 
Carolina troops)— of Clapp's Mill— Whitsell's Mill— 
the expedition of Rutherford against Wilmington in 
the autumn of 1781, when held by Major Craig and 
his Tory allies ? Where are these to be found, ex- 
cept in these Murphey memoranda, written in 1820- 
'21, and published in the University Magazine in 
1856? If, therefore, the Mecklenburg Declaration 
was destined to a long night of negligence and ob 
scurity before being presented to the muse of history, 
it slept by the side of military exploits, the traditions 
of which form no inconsiderable part of the Revolu- 
tionary fame of the State. In the process of ex- 
humation it came out of the rubbish a year or two 
in advance of them. And let it not be forgotten, 
that its authenticity rests upon the evidence of other 
witnesses in addition to his, who is the author of these 
narratives. And the incredulity which rejects it is 
much more prepared to blot out all that we have 
heard and believed in relation to the military inci- 
dents in the same part of the country, by which it 
was in no long time followed. All history is but the 
narration of the author, from personal knowledge or 
upon information from credible sources. We believe 



60 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

that Caesar invaded Gaul, because lie so wrote two 
thousand years ago. We believe that Davie 
slaughtered a Tory regiment on the very edge of the 
British camp, near Hanging Rock, having not time 
to give quarter and take prisoners ; we believe that 
he made a gallant stand in Charlotte against the ad- 
vance of Tarleton's cavalry ; but among American 
historians we first had these events from Lee, who 
did not join the Southern army till months after their 
occurrence, in memoirs not published till thirty years 
later. And it requires no strain on credulity to be- 
lieve the followers of Davie who bear witness of the 
Declaration of Mecklenburg, as an incident of which 
they had the evidence of their senses only five years 
earlier than of these achievements in arms. 

It is deemed hardly necessary to notice the objec- 
tion that the courts of justice were at this time held 
under the authority of the King, and that the inci- 
dent related of the reading of the declaration borne 
by Captain Jack in court at Salisbury could not have 
been true. Any one acquainted with the history of 
the period, knows that the royal authority in the 
State was everywhere in the feeblest condition. The 
Provincial Congresses, since August, 1774, had been 
composed of members of the Legislature who, while 
sitting as such, found intervals to carry forward their 
patriotic work notwithstanding inhibiting Proclama- 
tions from the Governor; and the Governor himself, 
as early as July, made his exit from our shores at 
Wilmington to a refuge on board the Cruiser. Magis- 
trates, if they did not sympathize in the proceeding, 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 61 

observed only ordinary prudence in stepping aside for 
the occasion lest the breezes that passed over them 
should rise into gales. 

But, say our objectors, if such resolutions were 
ever sent to Philadelphia, there should be found some 
evidence of the fact iu the journals of Congress. It 
requires but little research to show that this is but a 
cavil, proceeding from an utter ignorance of the mode 
of conducting business in the Congress, and the state 
of sentiment then prevailing among its members. It 
was among the first rules of order of the body, 
adopted in September, 1774, "that the door be kept 
shut during the time of business, and that members 
consider themselves under the strongest obligations of 
honor to keep the proceedings secret, until the ma- 
jority shall direct them to be made public." But 
there was a far more potential reason than this ; and 
Congress at that time, say May or June, 1775, would 
as soon have thought of entering on their Journal a 
proposition to assassinate King George, or to burn the 
city of London, as to declare independence of Great 
Britain. No single member favored it, or, judging 
from the best evidence afforded us, desired it. 

Here I approach considerations pertaining to this 
topic which I am surprised should have been over- 
looked in all former discussions, and which appear to 
have faded entirely from the memory of Mr. Jefferson, 
and also, as now appears, from that of Mr. Adams 
at the date of the letter from which we have quoted. 

The second Continental Congress met on the 10th 
of Mav, 1775. Mr. Jefferson then first took his seat 



62 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

as a member, and successor to Peyton Randolph. It 
is a fact, capable of the clearest demonstration, that 
Congress were more nearly unanimous against inde- 
pendence during this entire session, and I know not 
how much longer, than they were for it on the 4th 
of July, 1776. That this was then the feeling of 
Mr. Jefferson, we have more than general evidence. 
It has been fashionable among historians and fourth 
of July orators to treat of Independence as if it had 
been with our Congress a foregone conclusion, and a 
mere question of policy as to the time of proclaiming 
it, and that in this sentiment the whole country par- 
ticipated. There is no more gross and unfounded 
error. Independently of the danger and uncertainty 
of the issue of such a revolution, the feeling of loyalty 
to the King and attachment to the mother country 
was warm ; and though blood had been shed and 
hostile armies had been levied and were facing each 
other at Boston, the expectation and desire of recon- 
ciliation w r as ardently entertained in Congress, and by 
many citizens who a year later became the most de- 
voted adherents of independence and a Republic, 
Let us look into the Journal of Congress, now no 
longer secret, but then wisely kept as a sealed book 
from public view. 

On the 8th of July, 1775, a Petition to the King was 
signed by every member of Congress, praying for re- 
dress of grievances, as. British subjects, in the hum- 
blest terms ; and referring to the accusation which had 
been made in England, that they desired separation, 
they declare, " We have not raised armies with the 



ADDEESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM". 63 

ambitious design of separating from Great Britain 
and establishing independent States." At the same 
time an address of like import was drawn np, and 
signed, to the people of Great Britain, a species of 
appeal from the King and Parliament, which had 
been made on more than one occasion already. These 
documents, containing the unanimous expression of 
denial by Congress of aspiring to independence, were 
despatched to England by Pi chard Penn— the his- 
torian Bisset calls him the celebrated Mr. Penn — a 
grand-son of the founder of Pennsylvania, himself an 
ex-Governor, and a brother of her then Chief Magis- 
trate. (Hiklreth's History, vol. 3, p. 87-88.) Upon 
Penn's arrival in England, he procured the Petition 
to the King to be presented through Lord Dartmouth, 
the Colonial Secretary, who informed Penn that no 
answer would be returned. 

On the 16th of November, 1775, Penn, through 
the agency of Lord Dartmouth, was introduced be- 
fore the House of Lords, and examined as a witness 
touching affairs in America, and he testified to a pos- 
itive opinion that "no designs of independency had 
been formed by Congress " — and, says Hildreth, (p. 
112,) " as he had been lately a resident of Philadelphia, 
and was personally acquainted with many of the mem- 
bers, his opinion seemed entitled to great weight." 

Bisset informs us that, after Penn's examination, 
the Duke of Richmond moved that the petition from 
the Continental Congress to the King was a ground 
for conciliation of the unhappy differences subsisting 
between Great Britain and America, and argued that 



64 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

the Americans wished for reconcilement, and desired 
no concession from us derogatory to the honor of the 
mother country. But the motion was lost by a vote 
of 86 to 33 — upon which the historian expatiates on 
the folly of Lord North and the Ministry, in not em- 
bracing the overture of Congress, and saving America 
to Great Britain. 

As a further evidence that public sentiment in 
America generally was still on the side of adhesion to 
Britain, the Colonial Assemblies of three States sever- 
ally recommended to the attention of Congress at this 
session, Lord North's conciliatory proposition, and it 
was not until the 31st July that a committee, to whom 
it was referred, reported it to be unsatisfactory. 

That Mr. Jefferson had not yet embraced the idea 
of independence, I conceive to be asserted in the fol- 
lowing passage of a letter addressed by him to John 
Kandolph, dated Aug. 25, 1775 — Jefferson's Works, 
2d edition, vol i., p. 151. " I am sincerely one of 
those. I would rather be in dependence on Great 
Britain, properly limited, than on any nation on 
earth, or than on no nation." 

General Washington made it no secret that such 
were his sentiments. In Mr. Irving' s Life we are 
treated to a ludicrous scene, in the narrative, that in 
June 1775, when Washington was on his way from 
Philadelphia to take command of the army before 
Boston, the authorities of the city of New York, 
through which he had to pass, were in a great dilemma 
upon the question, whether they should compliment 
him or Gov. Tryon, then their Governor, who had 



ADDRESS OF WI. A. GRAHAM. G5 

just arrived in the harbor from a visit to England ; 
and that the perplexity was solved by ordering out a 
Regiment of militia with instructions to the colonel 
to pay military honors to whichever of these function- 
aries should first arrive. Washington happened to be 
prior in time — and in an address to him by Mr. 
Livingston, President of the Provincial Congress of 
New York, it was said : " We have the fullest assur- 
ance, that whenever this important contest shall he de- 
cided, by that fondest wish of each American soul, 
an accommodation with our mother country, you will 
cheerfully resign the important deposit committed into 
your hands and reassume the character of our wor- 
thiest citizenP 

In the General's reply he says : " We shall sincerely 
rejoice with you in that happy hour when the estab- 
lishment of American liberty on the most firm and 
solid foundations, shall enable us to return to our 
private station in the bosom of a free, peaceful and 
happy country. " A most earnest aspiration for 
reconcilement in the address — and not the 'most dis- 
tant allusion to independence in the reply ; and within 
eight hours afterwards, Tryon was received with like 
military honors and demonstrations of respect, by the 
city authorities and the royalist inhabitants. 

Again, in February, 1776, Washington writes : " I 
am entirely of your opinion that, should an accom- 
modation take place, the terms will be severe or 
favorable in proportion to our ability to resist, and 
that we ought to be on a respectable footing to receive 
their armaments in the spring." Thus, says a great 



QQ ADDEESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

authority in history, " the possibility of conciliation 
seems here taken for granted ; that is, independence 
was not then the idea of Washington, five months 
before the declaration." 

But in May, 1776, we have his own emphatic 
words : " A reconciliation with Great Britain is im- 
possible When I took command of the army 

(June, 1775) I abhorred the idea of independence, 
but I am now fully satisfied that nothing else will 
save us." 

They who incline to trace the progress of opinion 
in respect to independence, will find in the pages of 
Hildreth particulars of the proceedings in Congress 
from the 28th of June, the date of the report of the 
committee on that subject, till the 4th of July, 1776, 
and subsequently, tending to show at last, 

" Quanta} molis erat, ad finem condere gentem." 

" The fact seems to have been, (says the historical 
authority before referred to,) that resistance ripened 
gradually and insensibly into rebellion. The leaders 
had incurred the penalties of treason, before they 
could well have asked themselves to what lengths 
they were prepared to go — they always debated with 
closed doors, so that what were their exact views and 
the progress of their opinions cannot now be known." 
And the same authority states it as the most curious 
and difficult question which the whole contest affords, 
" Whether the American leaders did not hurry into 
positive rebellion before they had sufficient grounds 
to suppose they could resist what was then the great- 
est empire upon earth.''* 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 67 

Dr. Ramsay, of South Carolina, himself a member 
of Congress, in his history of the United States, pub- 
lished no long time after the war, says, " the affair of 
Lexington in April, 1775, exhibited the mother 
country in an odious point of view ;" yet he thinks, 
" for twelve months after, a majority wished only to 
be re-established as subjects of Great Britain in their 
ancient rights." 

It is far from my purpose to make invidious com- 
parisons, or to disparage the action of any State or 
individual, much less to insinuate that any State did 
not perform her full duty in maintaining the cause of 
independence after it was made a national measure. 
But the point in dispute is, who first proclaimed inde- 
pendence ; not the wisdom or prudence of the step, 
but its priority in point of time \ And the objection 
that the records of Congress made no mention of the 
early action of Mecklenburg, has rendered the expo- 
sition of the state of opinion in that body in regard 
to Independence in May or June, 1775, and the slow 
progress of its conception and development there, 
down to July, 1776, an indispensable duty. 

It now appears, since the Journals of Congress have 
been published and we are admitted behind the scenes, 
that when the Mecklenburg messenger arrived in 
Philadelphia in June, 1775 (the time is fixed by wit- 
nesses who show that it was about the time that 
Washington set out to take command of the army), 
that Congress was not at all in accord with the spirit 
of the people by whom he had been sent. How could 
that august assembly give countenance to a declaration 



68 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

of independence, albeit in a remote region of the 
country, when their thoughts still clung to reconcili- 
ation, and every member was about to set his hand to 
a petition professing loyalty to the King, love for the 
mother country, and disclaiming, as an unjust impu- 
tation, the " ambitious design " of independence, which 
their enemies had ascribed to them ? 

' No closed doors upon a deliberative assembly ever 
served a more valuable purpose, than those of the 
Continental Congress in this emergency against their 
most confiding friends. The message was doubtless 
most unwelcome, and might have met with rebuke 
but that war was already begun ; it was necessary to 
keep the spirit of the people up to the fighting point; 
the co-operation of all would probably be needed, even 
in a war such as was then being waged for the rights 
of British subjects in America ; and it would not do 
to send back a discouraging reply to men whose con- 
duct implied that they were ready for the most des- 
perate conflict. The North Carolina delegation in 
Congress were authorized to return for answer, that 
Congress admired the spirit and patriotism of the 
people, but deemed their action premature. It is ob- 
vious that Congress, with its then sentiments and 
views of policy, while speaking words of encourage- 
ment in their ears, would gladly pass over the affair 
in a manner to attract to it as little of public attention 
as possible. It was, as it were, afire opened upon the 
enemy, when Congress was sending out a flag of 
truce with professions of fraternization. And if the 
Mecklenburg resolutions were not published in the 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 69 

newspapers of the time, or if so printed, measures 
were taken to destroy the copies, so that they have 
not come down to ns, it is no violent presumption, 
that such measures were prompted by the agency of 
Congress in aid of the policy of reconciliation in which 
that body was then so earnestly engaged. Certainly in 
the mind of no impartial judge, with the information 
now open to us, can the credit of the testimony in 
favor of the authenticity of the Mecklenburg declara- 
tion suffer any impairment from the failure of Con- 
gress to leave some memorial of it. 

But it is asked, where is the letter or message re- 
turned by the delegates in Congress ? If this mes- 
sage were in writing, and the chairman or clerk of 
the meeting could rise from the grave, he probably 
could answer. But the whole proceeding was that of 
a popular assembly, having no official depository of 
its minutes. If there was such a paper, and it did not 
share the fate of the original declaration in being con- 
sumed by fire, the attention of those to whom it was 
addressed was too earnestly devoted to maintaining 
the independence they had proclaimed, and they 
passed through too many vicissitudes of war, to give 
heed to the preservation of the evidence of their 
deeds. They forthwith established a surveillance 
over the neighboring country, arresting disaffected 
persons, and sending them to places of confinement 
beyond the sphere of their influence, and organizing a 
police by which passports were required as to the sen- 
timents of the bearer when he chanced to be a 
stranger in the neighborhood where he was found — ■ 
(Jones's Defence. 303). 



70 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

The autumn of 1775 found these men of Mecklen- 
burg, as militia under their leader, Col. Thomas Polk, 
in an expedition against the Scovilite Tories, in north- 
western South Carolina, whom, with the patriot troops 
of that State, they assisted to disperse and subdue. 
With but a brief interval from this service, early in 
February, 1776, they were on the march to encounter 
the Tory forces levied on the Cape Fear and Yadkin? 
under McDonald and McLeod, to restore Gov. Mar- 
tin to authority — a call from which they were relieved 
at Cross Creeks (Fayetteville), on receiving there in- 
telligence of the decisive victory over the enemy at 
Moore's Creek by Caswell and Lillington. 

The writer has a manuscript journal of this expedi- 
tion, by Dr. John Graham, a volunteer with 19 
others, all then students of Queen's Museum, under 
Ephraim Brevard, their tutor, as captain, in Col. Thos. 
Polk's Regiment. 

Again, ere the summer had opened, they are seen 
under Rutherford, scaling our western mountains into 
Tennessee, and chastising and subduing the Cherokee 
Indians, who, under British influence, had commenced 
murdering the inhabitants of the frontiers — thus 
taking a prominent part in three diverse military ex- 
peditions made by the militia of the State, besides 
furnishing contingents to the Continental troops of 
North Carolina, under Moore and Nash, for the de- 
fence of Charleston against Sir Peter Parker's attack 
in June, 1776, — all anterior to the national declara- 
tion of independence on the 4th of July, 1776. These 
glimpses of contemporaneous events are necessary to 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 71 

be taken, in order to comprehend and apply the 
evidence touching the point in dispute. 

It may be appropriate here also to call to mind : 1. 
That the first Provincial Congress of North Carolina, 
called to consider grievances alleged against the 
mother country, convened at Newbern on the 25tli 
of August, 1774, the same day being that for the 
meeting of the colonial assembly, and elected Caswell, 
Hooper, and Hewes, delegates to the first Continental 
Congress. 

2. That the second Provincial Congress met at the 
same place on the 4th of April, 1775, the day of the 
meeting of the colonial assembly ; and the latter body 
being rebuked by Governor Martin for insubordina- 
tion, especially in approving the reappointment of 
delegates to the Continental Congress, made a spirited 
reply in maintenance of their rights, for which, after a 
session of five days, they were dissolved by the proc- 
lamation of the Governor, and no legislative assem- 
bly under the crown ever again convened in the State. 

3. The Governor himself within a brief period 
became a fugitive on board the Cruiser in Cape Fear 
river, and never afterwards exercised any of the ex- 
ecutive powers, except in the issuance of proclama- 
tions from his places of retreat. 

4. The law for the establishment of superior courts 
of justice having expired by limitation, and the Legis- 
lature and Governor, by reason of disagreement on a 
clause subjecting the lands of debtors residing in 
England to process of attachment, failed to re-enact 
any statute on this head, so that from 1774 to 1777, 



72 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

no Superior Courts were held in the Province, and the 
office of a Royal Judge was a sinecure. Thus, by ab- 
dication, as it were, English authority, in every depart- 
ment of Government, ceased in the Province, from, 
say, May 1775 : and the Provincial Congress assumed 
and held every function, Legislative, Executive and 
Judicial, except in the very limited jurisdiction of the 
Inferior Courts, held by justices of the peace.* There 
was therefore everything in the situation to invite re- 
volution as a refuge from anarchy. 

It will be recollected that Mr. Jefferson, in his letter 
before quoted, denied knowledge of any resolutions 
of the description alleged, from Mecklenburg, and 
appealing to Mr. Adams, continues : " Armed with 
"this bold example, would you not have addressed 
"our timid brethren in peals of thunder on their 
"tardy fears? Would not every advocate of inde- 
" pendence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg 
county in North Carolina ? " etc. And it appears, since 
the publication of the correspondence of Mr. Adams, 
that although crediting its authority at first, he sub- 
sequently expressed his disbelief. In transmitting 
the paper to Mr. Jefferson on the 22d of June, 1819, 
he says : " Had it been communicated to me in the time 
" of it, I know if you do not know that it would have 
" been printed in every Whig newspaper upon the 
" continent. You know that if I had possessed it, 1 
" would have made the halls of Congress echo and re- 



* Jones's Defence, and McRee's Life of Iredell. Martin, 
vol. 2. 



ADDKESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 73 

" echo with it, fifteen months before your declaration 
" of independence. What a poor, ignorant, malicious, 
"and short-sighted, crapulous mass is Tom Paine' s 
" Common Sense, in comparison with this paper. 
"Had I known it, I would have commented upon it 
" from the day you entered Congress till the 4th of 
" July, 1776."' 

The whirl of events in a revolution, independently 
of the access of age, is well calculated to confuse and 
impair the memory. And without detracting from the 
reverence due to either of these venerable ex-Presi- 
dents, it is manifest that the memory of both was 
sadly at fault as to the views of Congress, and in re- 
gard to their own individual sentiments, at least in all 
the year 1775, and how much later is unknown. Their 
letters both imply that they were eager for independ- 
ence as early as the date of this paper, and were de- 
layed by the doubts and fears of others ; whereas, at 
the very time of the arrival of the messenger from 
Mecklenburg, the Congress was, no doubt, employed 
in the preparation of a petition to the King for re- 
dress of grievances, disclaiming any design of inde- 
pendence, which was signed by these two, with all 
the other members, on the 8th of July, 1775. While 
the whole mind and heart of Congress (so far as we 
have any means of judging) were intent on reconcil- 
iation, the agitation of independence from a single 
county on the continent would not have called forth 
the appeals in tones of thunder imagined. On the 
contrary, it would have been regarded, at most, as an 
inopportune and embarrassing demonstration, which 



74 ADDKESS OF WM. A. GRAT^AM. 

it was most hazardous and inconsistent to encourage, 
and yet not expedient to rebuke. The emergency, 
therefore, required politic treatment, and would have 
sent out from the closed doors of Congress, or the 
chambers of the delegates from the State, just such 
an answer as that borne by Capt. Jack, to wit : that 
Congress admired the patriotism and courage of the 
people, but the step was as yet premature. 

Moreover, it is now conceded, nay insisted upon by 
our critics, that Mecklenburg did pass resolutions in 
this month of May, 1775, (the 31st) far transcending 
in revolutionary purpose those of Mr. Henry in the 
colonial assembly of Virginia ; yet neither Mr. Adams 
nor Mr. Jefferson remembered to have heard of them. 
But nevertheless, such resolutions there were. They 
were caught up by the Royal Governors of other colo- 
nies than North Carolina, and transmitted to the Brit- 
ish ministry. * 

Gov. Martin, on the 30th of June, also sent de- 
spatches to the Colonial Secretary, with the denuncia- 
tion that " The resolves of the Committee of Mecklen- 
burg, which your Lordship will find in the inclosed 
newspaper, surpass all the horrid and treasonable pub- 
lications the inflammatory spirits of this Continent 
have yet produced ; and your Lordship may depend 
its authors and abettors will not escape my notice, 
whenever my hands are sufficiently strengthened to 
attempt the recovery of the lost authority of Govern- 
ment. A copy of these resolves, I am informed, was 

* Gov. Wright of Ga. Wheeler, 254. 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 75 

sent off to the Congress at Philadelphia as soon as 
they were passed in the committee."* Not content 
with this, the Governor, on the 8th of August, on 
board the Cruiser, issued a Proclamation, reciting that 
" Whereas, I have seen a most infamous publication 
in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be resolves 
of a set of people styling themselves a Committee of 
the County of Mecklenburg, most traitorously declar- 
ing the entire dissolution of laws, Government, and 
Constitution of this country, and setting up a system 
of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and sub- 
versive of His Majesty's Government," etc. The 
resolves, though thus publicly denounced, and though 
published at the time in the papers of South Caro- 
lina, New York, and Massachusetts, and sent to Con- 
gress, were never heard of or if heard of totally for- 
gotten by its two eminent members, whose correspon- 
dence we have before us. If either of them was so 
intent at that time on independence as their letters 
in 1819 would indicate, the resolves of the 31st of 
May, declaring that " all Commissions civil and mil- 
itary heretofore granted by the Crown to be exercised 
in these Colonies, are null and void, and that whatev- 
er person should receive an office from the Crown in 
future, should be deemed an enemy of his country," 
etc., would have furnished ample material for that 
eloquence which it seems was but waiting on popu- 
lar demonstrations for independence. Of these, at 
least, they must have. had knowledge in June, 1775, 

* Wheeler, 257. 



76 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

according to all reasonable probability, as well as the 
instructions of the Provincial Congress of North Car- 
olina to her Continental delegates, to unite in voting 
for independence, in advance of the other Colonies, 
April 12th, 1 776 ; but no allusion is made to either of 
these daring measures to which the correspondence 
naturally led ; and both of the writers seem to have 
passed from the stage of human existence, in perfect 
obliviousness that either Mecklenburg or North Caro- 
lina had taken any advanced position in favor of 
throwing off British authority. 

Now, upon every principle of evidence, upon the 
ground that a witness who makes positive affirmation 
of an event is to be credited in preference to one who 
does not remember it, that forty-five years added to 
the lives of men, the one forty and the other thirty- 
three (the ages of Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson), will 
more tend to impair their recollections than the same 
term added to those of youths and men from fifteen 
to twenty-five (the ages of the Mecklenburg witnesses 
with two exceptions), as well as upon the documentary 
proof of the despatches and Proclamation aforesaid, 
we claim it as established, that resolutions were 
adopted at Charlotte in Mecklenburg, in May, 1775, 
declaring " the entire dissolution of the laws, Govern- 
ment and Constitution of Great Britain," which had 
theretofore obtained, and that a copy of these pro- 
ceedings was transmitted to Philadelphia by a special 
messenger, and delivered to the delegation of North 
Carolina in the Continental Congress ; and that in 
return an approving message was received by the 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 77 

same messenger, but with the admonition that the 
movement was too early. And if in history, as in 
law, it is sufficient to prove the substance of the issue, 
our position is established. In professional phrase 
we have prevailed on the general issue — the only issue 
originally made. 

But a new ground is more recently assumed, that 
conceding the affirmation to be true, there is error in 
the clay of the month on which the alleged meeting 
was held, and in the import of the resolutions, for 
that it was not the 20th but the 31st of May ; and 
that the resolutions adopted, though very spirited and 
defiant, did not import permanent separation from 
Great Britain. The day is not at all material, in so 
small a difference in the dates ; and we are thankful 
to the last learned critic in the North American 
Review, that " the people of Mecklenburg were the 
first to cut the ' Gordian knot,' of the political situa- 
tion by their incisive declaration made on the 31st of 
May, 1775." If this were all that had been done, it 
would be an event worthy of commemoration to re- 
mote a^es. But we contend that the resolutions 
adopted were resolutions of independence. The word 
implies so grand and stupendous an idea to the sub- 
jects of a monarchy, that there is little liability to 
mistake it for anything else, on the part of a witness 
of ordinary intelligence. Governor Martin unques- 
tionably so understood them — " Most traitorously 
declaring the dissolution of the laws, Government 
and Constitution, and setting up a system of rule and 
regulation, repugnant to the laws and subversive of 



78 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

His Majesty's Government," the words of which he 
made use, are satisfied by no other meaning than that 
of independence. Such is the concurrent recollection 
of every witness at the scene, of every one who was 
heard to speak of it afterwards, among the then 
inhabitants of that country. And no one, we appre- 
hend, even at a remote period, could probably mis- 
take the four or five resolutions of the 20th, for the 
series of twenty on the 31st, arranging details in mat- 
ters civil and military. Such is the evidence of tradi- 
tion, and of those who desired to have it kept in re- 
membrance. 

But why were not the resolutions of the 20th print- 
eel in the gazettes? The Cape Fear Mercury, in 
which were seen the resolutions denounced with such 
severity by Governor Martin, and referred to in his 
despatch, as transmitted with it, the only North Car- 
olina paper in which we are informed of any such 
publication, was lost from the British Colonial Office 
before Mr. Sparks made his researches therein — and 
Mr. Wheeler states that he found a memorandum 
upon his visit there in 1858, or thereabout, informing 
that it had been lost from the files since 1837. What 
series of resolutions it contained is therefore unknown. 
But if they were the series of the 31st of May, and 
those of the 20th were not published by printing till 
1819, is it not manifest that their publication shortly 
after their date would have thwarted the unanimous 
policy of Congress, flying as they did in the very 
teeth of its professions of loyalty and desire for re- 
conciliation ? And is it any violent presumption 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 79 

that the non-publication, if none was made, was oc- 
casioned by the advice and influence of that body ? 

Very serious question is also made as to the genu- 
ineness of the copy of the resolutions, the original 
having been destroyed as is alleged by the conflagra- 
tion of a building in the year 1800 — and Judge Mar- 
tin in his history of North Carolina having published a 
series not identical with the copy published by the legis- 
lature — (See Appendix for copy.) The difference be- 
tween the two is not a matter of substance — both de- 
clare independence. And I esteem the production of a 
separate and slightly varied copy by Martin as corrobo- 
ration rather than impeachment of the verity of the 
transaction ; especially when coupled with the state- 
ment of Dr. Hawks, that he had conversed with 
Judge Martin on this subject when both were resid- 
ing in New Orleans, and learned from him that he 
had obtained his copy in manuscript from the West- 
ern part of North Carolina, before the year 1800. 
But the integrity of the copy mainly depends upon 
the testimony of John McKnitt Alexander, and that' 
of the witnesses sustaining him. His account was, 
that as Secretary, he had preserved the record of it, 
from the time of adoption till it was destroyed with 
his dwelling by fire in 1800 ; that he had furnished 
a copy to Dr. Hugh Williamson, who had undertaken 
to write a history of the State, in order that the dec- 
laration might be noticed in that work — that he fur- 
nished another copy to Gen. Davie. Williamson did 
publish a History of North Carolina in 1812, and in 
his preface asserts that he "had received much inf or- 



80 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

mation from some of the most ancient and respectable 
citizens of the State, who continue to serve the country, 
and from others who had lately been numbered with 
the great majority." He says further that he con- 
templated to bring the history of the State down to 
1790, but declined from the arduousness of the task 
and confined his work to Colonial history prior to 
1771* 

]N"ow Alexander is corroborated in the foregoing 
statement, as we have seen : 1st, by the evidence of 
Gov. Stokes, who testified that Dr. Williamson had 
exhibited to him a copy of the Mecklenburg Declara- 
tion of Independence, in the handwriting of John Mc- 
Knitt Alexander, in 1793. 2d, by the testimony of 
Judge Cameron to Dr. Foote, that Alexander had in 
formed him of such a declaration in 1800, and that 
copies had been delivered to Dr. Williamson and Gen. 
Davie. 3d, by the testimony of D. G. Stinson, Esq., 
as already rehearsed. 4th, by the testimony of Dr. 
Samuel Henderson as to the finding of the copy in 
Alexanders handwriting in the mansion of Gen. 
Davie after the General's death. 5th, by his char- 
acter, public and private. He seems to have made 

* Mr. Jefferson in his letter asserts, that Dr. Williamson M in 
the history he has written of North Carolina did not recollect 
this gigantic step of its county of Mecklenburg." Williamson 
himself informs us in his preface that he had collected much 
historical matter with a view to continue his history to 1790 ; 
but as his narrative stops with 1771, we do not know what he 
would have written of events of 1775. We have shown, it is 
submitted, convincingly, that he had a copy of the Mecklenburg 
Declaration in his possession in 1793. 



ADDEESS OF WM. A. GEAHAM. 81 

continual claim to this transaction for the people of 
Mecklenburg : was solicitous to see it incorporated 
into history, at least as early as 1793 and 1800 — ex- 
pected to see it in Williamson's promised work, or in 
some other, to which Davie from his eminence in en- 
acting history might be called on to contribute ; and 
of course, as we infer, to make satisfactory proof of it, 
if called in question in his day, which, according to 
Wheeler, lasted nearly a quarter of a century after 
1793. There was an ingenuousness and confidence in 
the assertion of this claim on his part, while it could 
have been readily settled by living witnesses, which 
indicate no dread of controversy as to its rightfulness, 
if any had then arisen, and which well comports with 
the character of an actor in the transaction itself. 

But it is contended that the resolutions of the 31st 
of May are so incompatible with those alleged to have 
been passed on the 20th, that they negative the adop- 
tion of the last-mentioned altogether ; and this, in my 
conception, is the onl}^ plausible argument adduced 
against our position. The resolutions of the 31st fol- 
low very well as an appropriate sequence to those of 
the 20th, in everything except in a single particular. 
It was natural, that after having annulled and thrown 
off the British authority and dominion in a public 
meeting in the presence of, and w r ith shouts of ap- 
probation from the multitude, inflamed by the intel- 
ligence just received of the battle of Lexington, that 
the Committee should hold a subsequent meeting to 
establish a system of government adequate to the ex- 
igency of the crisis. This was the more necessary 



82 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

since by their resolutions of the 20th, " all, each and 
every military officer was reinstated in his former 
command and authority, he acting conformably to 
these regulations, and every member of the Com- 
mittee was made a civil officer, namely, a justice of 
the peace in the character of a committee man ; " 
while upon the popular principle which governed 
their proceedings, it should have been, and no doubt 
was, more satisfactory, to choose all these officers by 
popular election. Accordingly we find that on the 
31st, provision was made for a new organization of 
the military into companies, " and for the choice of a 
Colonel and other officers by the inhabitants of the 
county, and for the choosing in like manner of two 
discreet freeholders from each company with the juris- 
diction of justices of the peace, with sundry other wise 
regulations, for the administration of justice, the pre- 
servation of the peace, the suppression of disloyalty to 
the new governing power by adherence to Britain, 
and in preparation for war. 

But the 18th resolution, in the series of twenty, is 
as follows : " That these resolves be in full force and 
virtue until instructions from the Provincial Con- 
gress regulating the jurisprudence of the Province 
shall provide otherwise, or until the Legislative body 
of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pre- 
tensions with respect to America." These last words 
constitute the only seeming inconsistency between 
the two sets of resolutions. They present a thread of 
apparent connection with. British authority in a re- 
mote contingency, to which our opponents point, as 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 83 

proof that there was no dissolution on the 20th, and 
as if the previous resolutions of the same series had 
not rendered reconcilement to that authority impos- 
sible. 

As has been already remarked, we have no tradi- 
tions of the resolutions of the 31st, and know noth- 
ing of them except as they appear in contemporary 
newspapers, discovered at a comparatively recent 
date ; and though Tory papers, transmitted by Royal 
Governors, we assume the copies to be correct. We 
are left, therefore, very much to conjecture in the 
solution of the question how these words became in- 
corporated in the resolutions of a Committee which 
had already pronounced for independence. The 
most probable one which occurs to us, is, that when 
the Committee came to more deliberate consideration 
than was practicable in the excitement of the 20th, 
under the influence of the news that blood had al- 
ready begun to flow, and to frame regulations under 
which every man was required to array himself 
against the dominion of England at the hazard of be- 
ing seized as a prisoner, it was deemed humane as 
well as politic towards the doubtful or disaffected, to 
leave them the hope that the regulations to which 
they were required to conform might be terminated 
by the abandonment of its oppressive policy by the 
British Parliament. These regulations are essential- 
ly municipal laws, in which the lawgiver might well 
prescribe conditions to those over whom he exercised 
jurisdiction, which he would not observe towards an 
alien Government. 



84 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

It is certain this limitation could not have been 
designed as a loop-hole for future retreat from the po- 
sition of independence which had been assumed. On 
the contrary, the requirement that " The Legislative 
body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary 
pretensions with respect to America," renders this 
resolution more provokingly offensive to British 
authority than if that clause had been omitted alto- 
gether. To that authority it was a defiance, with 
epithets of opprobrium, while to the wavering, irres- 
olute, or loyalist citizen, it may have afforded a dis- 
tant expectation of reconcilement. However this 
may be, the verbal and circumstantial evidence of in- 
dependence, is too powerful to be overcome by the 
unexplained passage in one of the resolutions of the 
31st of May. 

There are some of us who can look back through 
many years of recollection, and, if blessed with ordi- 
nary faculties, can test the capacity and extent of hu- 
man memory in retaining a knowledge of facts and 
events. Fifty years carries us back to 1825, the year 
of the election of John Quiney Adams to the Presi- 
dency, by the House of Representatives, over Jackson 
and Crawford, and of the visit of Gen. Lafayette to 
this country and his reception in Raleigh. While 
forty-five years transports us to the second year of Jack- 
son's administration, the great debate between Hay no 
and Webster, the incipiency of nullification, and a 
year or two later to the agitation of that question in 
the State Legislature and in popular assemblies. 
Who, between the ages of 60 and 75 does not rem em- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 85 

ber at least this latter period, the public meetings and 
discussions, and the parts taken by the several public 
men then upon the stage ? Yet none of these equalled 
in magnitude, or were so adapted deeply to impress 
the memory, as the determination of the people of a 
colony to dissolve its connection with the parent 
kingdom, and incur the hazards of treason and of 
war. 

There are two most striking points of difference be- 
tween the resolutions of the 20th and those of the 
31st. The first breathe the spirit of a popular assem- 
bly, by which we are informed the committee was 
surrounded, just possessed of the news of the battle 
of Lexington, which is denounced in one of the reso- 
lutions as the " inhuman shedding of American blood 
at Lexington," are impassioned in tone, and declara- 
tive merely of position and principles. The latter are 
business-like, considerate and minute, providing for 
the necessities of a civilized community which had 
cast off its former organism. They make no reference 
to the battle of Lexington, the startling event of the 
times, which no public assembly would have failed to 
notice in the existing state of public feeling, unless 
they had given expression to their indignation al- 
ready. For aught that is known, or apparent in them, 
they may be the offspring of a session of the Com- 
mittee held in Dr. Brevard's private office, and there 
being no printing press at hand, were promulged 
among the people by sending out copies, some of 
which were procured by spies and forwarded to the 
royalist paper of Wells in Charleston, and to Governor 



86 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

Wright in Georgia, by whom they were so speedily 
posted off to London. We can therefore say with 
confidence, that of the resolutions of the 31st we have 
no information except as they are printed with the 
signature of a clerk in a contemporary paper ; while 
as to those of the 20th we have a detailed account 
from witnesses of character, of capacity to understand 
the transaction, as our intercourse with them and our 
own experience abundantly prove, with the best op- 
portunities for observation ; and confirmed in their 
recollection by a life-long conversancy with the actors 
in the scene, among whom it was doubtless a topic of 
not infrequent conversation, with the other incidents 
of the revolution, in their camps and marches, court- 
yards, public assemblages, and at their hospitable fire- 
sides. 

The learned have a theory, that upon presenting to 
a naturalist a bone of one of the extremities of an 
animal, he can thence infer the structure, form, and 
habits of the animal, and whether he subsists on flesh 
or grass. This, in the absence of more convincing in- 
formation, may answer very well. But to the practi- 
cal common mind, the description of a witness who 
had seen the beast, clothed in his skin, pasturing in 
the fields or roaming the forest, would be more satis- 
factory than the opinion on these points of Cuvier 
himself. The political or literary philosophers who 
undertake to tell us what Mecklenburg should have 
done, or abstained from doing, on the 20th of May, by 
inference from the fragment of a resolution passed on 
the 31st, must excuse us for preferring the account 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. hi 

of veritable witnesses, who testify what she did do. I 
regret to understand that the manuscript of that copy 
of the resolutions of the 20th of May, known as the 
Davie paper, cannot be found. I remember to have 
seen it in the Executive office at Raleigh, in 1845, 
considerably soiled, probably from having passed 
through the hands of the printers of 1831. I do not 
recollect to have read it, having often seen the copies 
in print, and am sure that my attention was not at- 
tracted to an} 7 certificate to the effect that the copy 
was made from memory by John McKnitt Alexander, 
as is alleged in the recent article on this topic in the 
North American Review — a circumstance implying an 
imputation at least of negligence on the part of the 
Committee, by whom the publication of 1830-31 was 
made, not at all consistent with the characters of the 
gentlemen composing it. If it were so, however, it 
probably accounts for the discrepancy between the 
Davie and Martin copies, in both of which the battle 
of Lexington is referred to, and in both of which in- 
dependence is declared. No one in an attempt to re- 
produce the series of twenty resolutions of the 31st, 
could ever have brought forth those four or five de- 
posited with either Davie or Martin ; while the two 
latter are very nearly identical with each other. And 
in the absence of the copy furnished to Williamson, it 
may be that that of Martin, which we have seen was 
obtained before the year 1800, is the more accurate. 
But either is sufficient to establish the great fact of the 
declaration of independence on the 20th of May, 1775, 
under the circumstances detailed in the oral evidence. 



88 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

The coincidence of certain language in these reso- 
lutions, with that employed in the national declara- 
tion of independence on the 4th of July, 1776, from 
which it is insisted that they are of subsequent ori- 
gin, is, when properly considered, an argument of little 
weight. And here let me remark that the fame of 
Mr.- Jefferson, as one of the very first of American 
writers, will not suffer diminution even by the estab- 
lishment of the fact, that in the national document lie 
used language and expressions which had been before 
employed to express like sentiments in this and other 
countries — even with the knowledge that they had 
been so employed. In the phrase of Governor Stokes, 
in the pamphlet already mentioned, it was but the 
expression of the common feeling, and was the com- 
mon language of the country at that eventful period. 
The learned writer of the article in the North Ameri- 
can Review brings forward the fact, that Richard 
Henry Lee, in his resolutions of the 7th of June, 
1776, had employed the words, "That these united 
colonies are, and of right ought to he, free and in- 
dependent States ; that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British Crown ; and that all politi- 
cal connection between them and the State of Great 
Britain is, and of right ought to be, dissolved." Yet 
nothing improper can be imputed upon finding that 
these expressions are adopted into the national de- 
claration ; and as little, we presume, in discovering 
in the concluding sentence the pledge of "lives, for- 
tunes," etc., all of which, in substance, we maintain 
had been previously used in the Mecklenburg resolu- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 89 

tions. Whether this prior use had ever come to the 
knowledge of the writer of the national declaration 
or not, is wholly immaterial. No nation or people 
ever went to war without in fact staking up their 
lives and fortunes and honor, and it requires no ex- 
traordinary rhetorical skill to give expression to the 
idea. Without going out of our way in the search 
for examples, we accidentally find that Gibbon, vol. 
1, p. £16, speaks of Constantine as a popular leader, 
to whose service, from a principle of conscience, the 
early Christians had devoted their " lives and for- 
tunes." In Martin's History of North Carolina it is 
mentioned, that after the departure of the Regulat- 
ors, who had broken up the session of the Superior 
Court at Hillsborough and compelled the judges to 
flee, an association paper was drawn up by the sup- 
porters of the Crown, in which the subscribers sol- 
emnly engaged to support the government against 
the insurgents at the risk of their " lives and for- 
tunes," etc.* This is an American precedent of the 
use of these terms as early as September, 1770. The 
essay of the Rev. Dr. Smy the, of Charleston, to which 
reference has been already made, in the use of like 
words and phrases to those contained in either de- 
claration, in the Scottish document, which he men- 
tions, as early as 1670, may likewise be consulted for 
many expressions similar to those in these papers, 
notwithstanding the summary and not very respect- 
ful manner in which it is passed over by the North 
American Review. 

* Vol. 2, 276. 



90 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

The reviewer apparently considers himself fortu- 
nate in finding an expression of Judge Iredell, of 
North Carolina, to the effect, " that until very near 
the time when the arbitrary obstinacy of the King 
left no other alternative than indefinite submission or 
unreserved resistance, he never heard a man speak on 
the subject of independence who did not speak of 
it with abhorrence and indignation." And the emi- 
nent character of Judge Iredell is very justly com- 
mented on. 

The time for decision on this alternative is left very 
indefinite, and might be fixed at different periods by 
different minds. But where is this asseveration found ? 
It is in a document addressed to His Majesty George 
the Third, King of Great Britain, etc., and signed, 
"A British American, March, 1777" — never for- 
warded to the King nor printed till 1857, but circu- 
lated in manuscript among the friends of Mr. Iredell, 
as what has since come to be known as a campaign 
document, to reconcile the people to independence 
and rouse them to its defence. It is, at most, a rhe- 
torical effusion in the argument of an an on vinous ad- 
vocate, never expected to be seen by his correspondent, 
and not heavily taxing his memory for facts, but in- 
tent on exposing the tyranny and folly of the King. 
It so turns out that in the same first volume of Iredell's 
Life and Correspondence, p. 193-4-6, quoted by the 
reviewer, we find independence shadowed forth in a 
letter from William Hooper to Iredell, bearing date 
April 26th, 1774, in which the writer says: "With 
you I anticipate the important share which the colo- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 91 

nies must soon have in regulating the political bal- 
ance. They are striding fast to independence, and 
ere long will build an empire upon the ruins of 
Great Britain" The letter is copied at length in 
the Defence of J. SeawellJones, p. 312, who remarks, 
" I look upon this letter as not inferior to any event 
in the history of the country, and in the boldness and 
originality of it, a document without a rival at the 
period of its date. It takes precedence of the Meck- 
lenburg declaration, as that does of the national de- 
claration of independence." Mr. McKee, the biog- 
rapher of Iredell, copies these remarks of Jones ap- 
provingly, and in his work refers often to the Meck- 
lenburg declaration as a historical event, especially in 
the mention of Waightstill Avery as a delegate at its 
adoption. It is quite probable that Mr. Iredell, had 
the matter been called to his recollection, would have 
admitted that he had heard of the resolution of the 
Provincial Congress urging independence on the 12th 
of April, 1776, and possibly also of the proceeding in 
Mecklenburg in 1775, though three hundred and fifty 
miles distant, with no business intercourse between 
Edenton and Charlotte, and no printing press at either 
point. But whatever may be our conjectures on this 
head, it is demonstrated that Mr. Iredell had known 
of a suggestion of independence in no equivocal, but 
in an approving sense, and apparently in reply to a 
like meditation on his own part. 

It remains to take some notice of the arguments of 
the reviewer drawn from the proceedings of the Pro- 
vincial Congress at Hillsborough on the 20th of 



9'2 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

August, 1775, in which he seems to suppose that he 
has found a dilemma, from which there can be no 
escape. The journal of this Congress, which was 
printed and published at that time, has ever bee-n re- 
garded as a noble monument of the patriotism and wis- 
dom of the men who were its members. It is very copi- 
ously extracted from by Martin and Jones, neither of 
whom discovered in it anything irreconcilable with the 
Mecklenburg declaration of independence, which they 
both affirm. But the reviewer raises upon it a ques- 
tion of conscience, and goes so far as to declare it in- 
famous, if Mecklenburg had made the declaration in 
question, that her delegates should have concurred in 
the action of this Congress. To this we have to reply, 
first, that the casuistry of a professor's chair would be 
as well ajyplicable to the sailing of a ship in a storm, 
as to measures of war and revolution. It has never 
been presumed to aid in planning expeditions, win- 
ning battles, or overturning governments ; and second, 
that although Mecklenburg had declared her inde- 
pendence of Great Britain, there were two other 
authorities from which she had no purpose to break, 
and on which she acknowledged her dependence in 
her very declaration, namely, the Continental Con- 
gress of the United States, and the Provincial Con- 
gress of North Carolina. It was, therefore, in entire 
consonance with her attitude towards Great Britain, 
that she should appoint her delegates as theretofore, 
to this Congress, consisting, as we are told, of Thomas 
Polk, John McKnitt Alexander, John Phifer and 
Waightstill Avery, and conform her conduct to the 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 93 

decrees of that Assembly, which was then the sole 
depository of the sovereign powers of government in 
the Province, legislative, executive and judicial. She 
was not quite so demented or obstinate as to have her 
delegates withdraw or protest whenever a measure 
should be proposed or carried, which compromised 
the independence she had set np for herself; after 
the example of certain fanatical Jews commented on 
by Yattel, who, when attacked by their enemies on 
Sunday, suffered themselves to be cut to pieces, rather 
than be considered as violating the fourth command- 
ment in making defence. This is the position the 
argument of the reviewer would have had them to 
assume, rather than permit the representation of the 
whole Province, consisting of nearly all its most illus- 
trious men, to control the destinies of the whole peo- 
ple in the perils which environed them. The same 
fanaticism would have required them, on the return 
of Capt. Jack from Philadelphia, to denounce the 
Continental Congress as dastards, and resolve to 
prosecute the war and maintain independence with- 
out allies outside of the limits of their own county, 
or at least of the Province. But they were advised 
it was too early for the united colonies to venture so 
far, and they abided by the counsel then given by the 
authority to which they had appealed. And when 
their delegates went to Hillsborough, less than two 
months after Jack's return, they there found Cas- 
well, Hooper and Hewes, who sent the message from 
Philadelphia to Mecklenburg, all members of the 
Provincial Congress from their respective counties. 



94 ADDKESS OF WI. A. GRAHAM. 

In the interim, on the 8th of July they had eacli set 
his name, with all the other members of the Conti- 
nental Congress to the petition to the King for a 
redress of grievances and disclaiming designs of inde- 
pendence. This we now see, though it was probably 
not revealed to the Provincial Congress, and we can 
readily understand, that in a body of which they were 
members, to which they brought intelligence, doubt- 
less, as to the state of sentiment in all the colonies, 
and in which they from their station would exert a 
decisive influence, there was no likelihood of a pro- 
clamation of independence. JSTo one has ever pre- 
tended that the whole colony was then ready for inde- 
pendence. And, as Mecklenburg had deferred to the 
views of the Continental Congress, so she but yielded 
a like deference through her delegates to this Provin- 
cial Congress in not making a demonstration of her 
local sentiment, which she was doubtless advised 
would not be seconded, and could but lead to dissen- 
sion. No yeas and nays were taken on any question. 
No one desired to make up a journal to be afterwards 
quoted to exhibit his personal consistency. All were 
intent only on the deliverance of their country — some 
doubtless with views of policy far more advanced than 
others — and an undivided vote in all important sub- 
jects was of great moment* 

But what did this Congress do that was so deroga- 
tory to the honor of the delegates from Mecklen- 
burg, that they should have withheld from it their 

* See Journal of Congress, August, 1775. 



ADDRESS OF WI. A. GRAHAM. 95 

consent ? We are told that, 1st, a test was established 
to which they submitted. A test of what ? of loy- 
alty to the King, or of fidelity to the Continen- 
tal and Provincial Congresses ? This paper is copied 
but in part, in the article in the North American 
Review, and that which we may term the British 
part. Its full import is not to be comprehended 
from the Review, We therefore give it in full, as 
follows : 

" We the subscribers, professing our allegiance to 
the King, and acknowledging the Constitutional, Ex- 
ecutive power of Government, do solemnly profess, 
testify and declare, that we do absolutely believe that 
neither the Parliament of Great Britain, nor any 
member or constituent branch thereof, have a right 
to impose Taxes upon the colonies to regulate the in- 
ternal policy thereof, and all attempts, by fraud or 
force, to establish and exercise such claims and pow- 
ers, are violations of the peace and security of the 
people, and ought to be resisted to the utmost." [So 
far goes the copy in the Review.'] " And that the 
people of this Province, singly and collectively, are 
bound by the acts and resolutions of the Continental 
and Provincial Congress, because in both they are 
freely represented by persons chosen by themselves ; 
and we solemnly and sincerely promise and engage, 
under the sanction of virtue and honor, and the sacred 
love of liberty and our country, to maintain and sup- 
port all and every the acts, resolutions and regulations 
of the said Continental and Provincial Congresses, to 
the utmost of our power and abilities. In testimony 



96 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

whereof we have hereto set our hands, this 23d of 
August, 1775." 

Saving the first two lines, thrown in for the sake of 
the scrupulous or disaffected, to afford a semblance of 
remaining loyalty to the King as an Executive power, 
this test contains an emphatic denial of all authority 
of Parliament over the colonies — a declaration that it 
should be resisted to the utmost, and a solemn engage- 
ment to maintain and support all and every the acts, re- 
gulations and resolutions of the Continental and Pro- 
vincial Congresses. It is in these latter particulars 
quite equal to the oath now required of a foreigner upon 
his naturalization as a citizen of the United States, to 
renounce his native allegiance and be faithful to his new 
government. There was among the people of the 
Province, a large number who had been engaged in 
the Regulation, been overcome at Alamance — some 
punished capitally, and all the survivors compelled to 
take anew the oath of allegiance to the King : another 
large settlement of Scotch Highlanders, recently 
arrived, and still arriving from their native country, 
who remembered a like defeat at Culloden in the year 
'45. Both of these were inclined to the support of 
the Crown, as well from scruples of conscience as from 
dread of punishment. The first object of this Con- 
gress, no doubt, was to exact a bond of obedience to 
itself and the Continental Congress, " to the utmost 
of his power and abilities," from every citizen ; but 
so to attemper the requirement that these classes 
might be brought into the engagement, and that even 
the disaffected should have no excuse for refusal. 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 97 

Thus understood it excites a smile to see this test 
treated by our reviewer as a test of loyalty to the 
King, the more especially when we read in the Jour- 
nals of many individuals being arrested and brought 
before the Congress under this test, charged with dis- 
affection to its authority, but of no one charged with 
disloyalty to the King, nor of any military or police 
force, to hunt out such, and make arrests.* It is need- 
less to add, that a force of this latter class would have 
been itself promptly arrested, if not summarily exe- 
cuted. This test was deemed so essential that it was 
administered to all officials under the Congress, with- 
out distinction of person, in this and the succeeding 
body of April 4th, 1776. Even after the passage of 
the famous resolutions, on the 12th of April, 1776, 
instructing the delegates of the Province in the Con- 
tinental Congress to vote for independence, we read 
in the Journal of April 15th, 1776, that " William 
Hooper and John Penn, Esqs., delegates of the Con- 
tinental Congress, and members of this House, 
appeared, subscribed the test and took their seats." 
And it may be a matter of surprise to the scrupulous 
of a later day, that Messrs. Hooper and Penn should 
thus unnecessarily involve their consciences by taking 
this test to the King, if it was such, after they 
had been instructed to vote for independence, and 
then, within three months, giving their votes and sub- 
scription to the national declaration. But thus it 
appears of record. 

* See in Journal cases of Coulson, Farq'd, Campbell and others. 



98 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

2. But the Congress resolved unanimously (Meck- 
lenburg included) that "the Proclamation of Governor 
Martin, of the 8th of August inst., is & false, scanda- 
lous, scurrilous, malicious and seditious libel, tending 
to disunite the good people of this Province, and stir 
up tumults and insurrections, dangerous to the peace 
of his Majesty's government, and the safety of the in- 
habitants, and highly injurious to the character of 
several gentlemen of acknowledged virtue and loyalty 
— and further, that the paper be burned by the com- 
mon hangman." 

This Proclamation, which is copied in "Jones's De- 
fence " (p. 183), and covers near ten pages of that vol- 
ume, is too long for minute comment here. It is 
sufficient to say, that in applying to it the term 
" false," it was not to be implied that the facts recited 
in it were untrue* In the criminal law of that time 
it was a maxim, " The greater the truth the greater 
the libel," if the publication tended to expose the 
subject of it " to public hatred, contempt or ridicule," 
and the term " false " was but a formula for charac- 
terizing a libel. The Congress, therefore, did not in- 
tend by the resolution to deny that " a committee for 
the county of Mecklenburg had passed resolves 
declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, govern- 
ment and constitution of this country," etc., (as Gov- 
ernor Martin alleged,) any more than to deny that 
John Ashe and his associates had burned Fort John- 
ston, or that Caswell, Hooper and Hewes had writ- 
ten the letter imputed to them, for the purpose of 
carrying into effect the resolutions of the Continental 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 99 

Congress, or that Samuel Johnston had convoked this 
Congress (all which with many other acts and per- 
sons were denounced in the Proclamation) : but the 
libel consisted in holding up the several acts and per- 
sons mentioned to public hatred and contempt, by the 
publication. As to the loyalty the resolution may 
imply, we have seen how far that extended in the 
test, into which the members of the Congress had en- 
tered, and which they prescribed to all the inhabi- 
tants of the Province. Measured by this it was not a 
span in length. 

3. We have not space or time to investigate the ad- 
dress to the people of Britain, which does not appear 
ever to have been transmitted — or the rejection of 
the proposition for a plan of confederation of the 
American colonies, mentioned in the Peview. Let it 
suffice to say, that the new Whig Government, 
through the Provincial Congresses, and in their vaca- 
tion by the Provincial Council, w T ith the standard of 
political duty established by the test before recited, 
ruled the country with a bold yet politic and in- 
dulgent hand. Great pains were taken, through com- 
mittees and otherwise, to explain the situation to the 
people ; but those who were friends to the King, 
rather than to this Provincial authority, were sought 
out and arrested, and then imprisoned or exiled, until 
they renounced such adhesion or gave pledges for 
right behavior. Not only this, the Congress organized 
a war establishment upon a substantial footing — made 
expeditions, fought battles, and won victories over the 
King's friends, in South Carolina and Virginia, in con- 



100 ADDBESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

junction with the patriot troops of those States, as 
well as at Moore's Creek, within our own borders ; 
and by the time the Congress met again the ensuing 
Spring, was prompt to reward these exploits with the 
honors of a triumph, in votes of thanks to her heroic 
commanders.* 

If the delegates from Mecklenburg did not find an 
echo to her declaration of principles, and made com- 
pliances which may appear to have occasioned them 
chagrin, in practical results they could have desired 
nothing better than was planned and executed by this 
Congress. 

They might well have said to their people at home, 
" Our strength is to sit still." The Congress was ef- 
fecting all that they desired, and at this Spring ses- 
sion they had the great satisfaction to see the Congress 
nobly resolve on independence, as they had done on the 
20th of May, 1775, before the representatives of any 

*1. The tliauks of Congress were voted to Brigadier Genl. 
Howe for his manly, generous and warlike conduct in these un- 
happy times : more especially for the reputation which our Pro- 
vincial troops acquired under him at the conflagration of Nor- 
folk (Deer., 1775). Journal, p. 33. 

2. Likewise to Col. Richard Caswell, and the brave officers and 
soldiers under his command, for the very essential service by 
them rendered this country, at the battle of Moore's Creek (Feb. 
27th, 1776). Journal, p. 12. 

3. The expedition of Cols. Polk, of Mecklenburg, Rutherford, 
of Rowan, Neel, of Tryon, and two companies of N. C. Conti- 
nental troops under Col. Alexander Martin, in conjunction with 
the troops of South Carolina, against the Scovilites in that State, 
called the Snow Campaign, was also made in December, 1775. — 
Oenl. Graham's Memoranda. 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 101 

other colony had taken this decisive step. Congress 
met at Halifax on the 4th of April, 1776. " On the 
8th it was resolved, that Mr. Harnett, Mr. Allen 
Jones, Mr. Burke, Mr. Nash, Mr. Kinchen, Mr. Per- 
son and Mr. Thomas Jones, be a select committee to 
take into consideration the usurpations and vio- 
lences attempted and committed by the King and 
Parliament of Great Britain against America, and 
the further measures to be taken for frustrating the 
same, and for the better defence of this Province." 
On the 12th of April, 1776, the select committee re- 
ported as follows, to wit : " It appears to your com- 
mittee that pursuant to the plan concerted by the 
British Ministry for the subjugation of America, the 
King and Parliament of Great Britain have usurped 
a power over the persons and properties of the peo- 
ple unlimited and uncontrolled; aud disregarding 
their humble petitions for peace, liberty and safety, 
have made divers legislative acts denouncing war, 
famine and every species of calamity against the con- 
tinent in general. The British fleets and armies have 
been and still are daily employed in destroying the 
people, and committing the most horrid devastations on 
the country. The Governors in different colonies have 
declared protection to slaves who should imbrue their 
hands in the blood of their masters. That the ships 
belonging to America are declared prizes of war, and 
many of them have been violently seized and confis- 
cated. In consequence of all which, multitudes of 
the people have been destroyed, or from easy circum- 
stances reduced to the most lamentable distress. And 



102 ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 

whereas, the moderation hitherto manifested by the 
united colonies, and their sincere desire to be recon- 
ciled to the mother country on constitutional princi- 
ples, have procured no mitigation of the aforesaid 
wrongs and usurpations, and no hopes remain of ob- 
taining redress by these means alone, which have been 
hitherto tried, your committee are of opinion the 
House should enter into the following resolve, to wit : 

Resolved, "that the delegates from this colony in 
the Continental Congress be empowered to concur 
with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring 
Independency, and forming foreign alliances, reserv- 
ing to the colony the sole and exclusive right of form- 
ing a constitution and laws for this colony, and of 
appointing delegates from time to time, (under the 
direction of a general representation thereof) to meet 
the delegates of the other colonies, for such purposes 
as shall be hereafter pointed out." 

" The Congress taking the same into consideration 
unanimously concurred therewith." 

Our progress to independence then, was by these 
steps : 

1st. Mecklenburg dissolved her connection on the 
20th May, 1775, from the mother country, but was still 
subject to the government of the Provincial Congress 
which was in alliance with the Continental Congress. 

2d. The test adopted by the Provincial Congress 
on the 23d of August, 1775, in effect cut the cord of 
connection between the Province of North Carolina 
and Great Britain, and required an obligation of al- 
legiance to the Provincial and Continental Con- 



ADDRESS OF WM. A. GRAHAM. 103 

gresses, without limit of time — a transfer of fealty, 
but as yet, without a change of flag. 

3d. This severance was acknowledged, and pro- 
posed for the adoption of the Continent, by the re- 
port and resolution of the 12th April, 1776. 

4th. Other colonies subsequently adopted like reso- 
lutions, and the great National Declaration followed 
on the 4th July, 1776, converting Provinces into 
States, and uniting all in bonds of harmony, and mu- 
tual defence and protection. 

The learned, elaborate, and minute criticism in the 
North American JReview, controverting the truth of 
the Mecklenburg Declaration of the 20th May, though 
conceding and allowing due credit for the resolutions 
of the 31st, will, I trust, plead due apology for the 
prolixity of this vindication. Perhaps it may be well, 
even irrespective of this commentary, on the approach 
of the hundredth birthday of the event, when all of 
the old thirteen States seem to be brushing off the dust 
from their armor, and brightening their escutcheon 
for display on the great Centennial of the Union, that 
we should review history and see the foundations on 
which our faith in it may rest. This I have sought 
to do by the lights within our approach, candidly 
and without a particle of vanity or envy towards any 
of our sister States. All stood bravely side by side 
in the achievement of the end proclaimed ; and with- 
out the material resources, the gallant armies, the 
sages and heroes of all, and even with these, without 
the repeated favors of a benign Providence, any De- 
claration of Independence would have been but an 
empty sound. 



DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 



A. — The Davie Copy of the Declaration. (See p. 12.) 

1st. Resolved, That whosoever directly or indi- 
rectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, coun- 
tenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of 
our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy 
to this country, to America, and to the inherent and 
inalienable rights of man. 

2d. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklen- 
burg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands 
which have connected us to the mother country, and 
hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the 
British Crown, and abjure all political connection, 
contract, or association, with that nation, who have 
wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and 
inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at 
Lexington. 

3d. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves 
a free and independent people ; are, and of right 
ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing Associa- 
tion, under the control of no power other than that 
of our God and the general government of the Con- 
gress ; to the maintenance of which independence, 
we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co- 
operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred 
honor. 

4th. Resolved, That as we now acknowledge the 
existence and control of no law or legal officer, civil 
or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain 



108 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 

and adopt as a rule of life, all, each and every of our 
former laws, — wherein, nevertheless, the Crown of 
Great Britain never can be considered as holding- 
rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein. 

5th. Resolved, That it is further decreed, that all, 
each and every military officer in this county, is here- 
by reinstated in his former command and authority, 
he acting conformably to these regulations. And 
that every member present, of this delegation, shall 
henceforth be a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the 
Peace, in the character of a " Committee-man" to 
issue process, hear and determine all matters of con- 
troversy, according to said adopted laws, and to pre- 
serve peace, union and harmony in said county ; — 
and to use every exertion to spread the love of 
country and fire of freedom throughout America, 
until a more general and organized government be 
established in this province. 



B. — Resolutions as in Martin's History, Vol. 2, 
Page 373. (See p. 14.) 

Resolved. — That whosoever directly or indirectly 
abets or in any way, form or manner countenances the 
invasion of our rights, as attempted by the Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain, is an enemy to his country, to 
America, and the rights of men. 

Resolved. — That we the citizens of Mecklenburg 
county do hereby dissolve the political bands which 
have connected us with the mother country, and ab- 



DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 107 

solve ourselves from all allegiance to the British 
crown, abjuring all political connection with a nation 
that has wantonly trampled on our rights and liber- 
ties and inhumanly shed the innocent blood of Ameri- 
cans at Lexington. 

Resolved. — That we do hereby declare ourselves a 
free and independent people, are, and of right ought to 
be, a sovereign and self-governing people, under the 
power of God and the General Congress ; to the main- 
tenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to 
each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our for- 
tunes, and our most sacred honor. 

Resolved. — That we hereby ordain and adopt as 
rules of conduct, all and each of our former laws, and 
the crown of Great Britain cannot he considered 
hereafter as holding any rights, privileges or immu- 
nities amongst us. 

Resolved. — That all officers, both civil and military, 
in this county, be entitled to exercise the same powers 
and authorities as heretofore : that every member of 
this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer and 
exercise the powers of a justice of the peace, issue pro- 
cess, hear and determine controversies according to law, 
preserve peace, union and harmony, in the county, 
and use every exertion to spread the love of liberty 
and of country, until a more general, and better or- 
ganized system of Government be established. 

Resolved. — That a copy of these resolutions be 
transmitted by express to the President of the Conti- 
nental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, to be laid 
before that body. 



108 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 

C— KESOLUTKWS OF 31st MAY. (See p. 19.) 
Extract from the South Carolina Gazette and County 
Journal, of June, 1775, No. 498 — Printed at 
Charlestoion by Charles Crouch, on the 
Bay, corner of Elliott Street. 
Charlottetown, Mecklenburg County, 
May 31st, .1775. 
This day the Committee of this county met and 
passed the following resolves : — 

Whereas, By an address presented to His Majesty 
by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the 
American Colonies are declared to be in a state of ac- 
tual rebellion, we conceive that all laws and commis- 
sions confirmed by or derived, from the authority of 
the King and Parliament are annulled and vacated, 
and. the former civil constitution of these colonies for 
the present wholly suspended. To provide in some 
degree for the exigencies of this county in the present 
alarming period, we deem it proper and necessary to 
pass the following resolves, viz : — 

I. That all commissions, civil and military, hereto- 
fore granted by the crown to be exercised in these 
colonies, are null and void, and the constitution 
of each particular colony wholly suspended. 

II. That the Provincial Congress of each Province, 
under the direction of the Great Continental Con- 
gress, is invested with all legislative and executive 
powers within their respective provinces, and that no 
other legislative or executive power does or can exist 
at this time in any of these colonies. 

III. As all former laws are now suspended in this 



DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 109 

Province, and the Congress has not yet provided 
others, we judge it necessary for the better preserva- 
tion of good order, to form certain rules and regula- 
tions for the Internal Government of this county, un- 
til laws shall be provided for us by the Congress. 

IV. That the inhabitants of this county do meet on 
a certain day appointed by the Committee, and having 
formed themselves into nine companies (to wit : eight 
for the county and one for the town), do choose 
a colonel and other military officers, who shall hold 
and exercise their several powers by virtue of the 
choice, and independent of the crown of Great Bri- 
tain, and former constitution of this province. 

V. That for the better preservation of the peace 
and administration of justice, each of those companies 
do choose from their own body two discreet free- 
holders, who shall be empowered each by himself, and 
singly, to decide and determine all matters of contro- 
versy arising within said company, under the sum of 
twenty shillings, and jointly and together all contro- 
versies under the sum of forty shillings, yet so as their 
decisions may admit of appeal to the Convention of 
the Select Men of the County, and also that any one 
of these men shall have power to examine and commit 
to confinement persons accused of petit larceny. 

VI. That those two select men thus chosen do 
jointly and together choose from the body of their 
particular company two persons to act as constables, 
who may assist them in the execution of their office. 

VII. That upon the complaint of any persons to 
either of these select men, he do issue his warrant di- 



110 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 

rected to the constable, commanding him to bring the 
aggressor before him to answer said complaint. 

VIII. That these select eighteen select men thus 
appointed do meet every third Thursday in January, 
April, July and October at the Court House in 
Charlotte, to hear and determine all matters of con- 
troversy for sums exceeding 40s., also appeals ; and 
in case of felony to commit the persons convicted 
thereof to close confinement until the Provincial 
Congress shall provide and establish laws and modes 
of proceeding in all such cases. 

IX. That these eighteen select men thus convened 
do choose a clerk, to record the transactions of said 
convention, and that said clerk, upon the application 
of any person or persons aggrieved, do issue his war- 
rant to any of the constables of the company to which 
the offender belongs, directing said constable to sum- 
mon and warn said offender to appear before said 
convention at their next sitting, to answer the afore- 
said complaint. 

X. That any person making complaint, upon oath, 
to the clerk, or any member of the convention, that 
he has reason to suspect that any person or persons 
indebted to him in a sum above forty shillings intend 
clandestinely to withdraw from the county without 
paying the debt, the clerk or such member shall issue 
his warrant to the constable, commanding him to take 
said person or persons into safe custody until the next 
sitting of the convention. 

XI. That when a debtor for a sum above forty shil- 
lings shall abscond and leave the county, the warrant 



DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDEESS. Ill 

granted as aforesaid shall extend to any goods or chat- 
tels of said debtor as may be found, and such goods 
or chattels be seized and held in custody by the con- 
stable for the space of thirty days, in which time, if 
the debtor fail to return and discharge the debt, the 
constable shall return the warrant to one of the 
select men of the company where the goods are 
found, who shall issue orders to the constable to sell 
such a part of said goods as shall amount to the sum 
due. 

That when the debt exceeds, forty shillings, the re- 
turn shall be made to the convention, who shall issue 
orders for sale. 

XII. That all receivers and collectors of quit rents, 
public and county taxes, do pay the same into the 
hands of the chairman of this committee, to be by them 
disbursed as the public exigencies may require, and 
that such receivers and collectors proceed no further 
in their office until they be approved of by, and have 
given to this committee good and sufficient security 
for a faithful return of such moneys when col- 
lected. 

XIII. That the committee be accountable to the 
county for the application of all moneys received 
from such public officers. 

XIY. That all these officers hold their commissions 
during the pleasure of their several constituents. 

XY. That this committee will sustain all damages 
to all or any of their officers thus appointed, and thus 
acting, on account of their obedience and conformity 
to these rules. 



112 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDEESS. 

XYI. That whatever person shall hereafter receive 
a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise 
any such commission heretofore received, shall be 
deemed an enemy to his country; and upon confir- 
mation being made to the captain of the company in 
which he resides, the said company shall cause him to 
be apprehended and conveyed before two select men, 
who, upon proof of the fact, shall commit said 
offender to safe custody, until the next sitting of the 
committee, who shall deal with him as prudence may 
direct. 

XYIL That any person refusing to yield obedience 
to the above rules shall be considered equally crimi- 
nal, and liable to the same punishment, as the 
offenders above last mentioned. 

XVIII. That these resolves be in full force and 
virtue until instructions from the Provincial Congress 
regulating the jurisprudence of the province shall 
provide otherwise, or the legislative body of Great 
Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions 
with respect to America. 

XIX. That the eight militia companies in this 
county provide themselves with proper arms and 
accoutrements, and hold themselves in readiness to 
execute the commands and directions of the Gen- 
eral Congress of this province and this Commit- 
tee. 

XX. That the Committee appoint Col. Thomas 
Polk and Dr. Joseph Kennedy to purchase 300 
pounds of powder, 600 pounds of lead, 1000 flints, for 
the use of the militia of this county, and deposit the 



DOCUMENTS CITED IN PKECEDINCr ADDRESS. 113 

same in such place as the Committee may hereafter 
direct. 

Signed by order of the Committee, 

EPIL BEEYAED, 

Clerk of the Committee. 



D.— (See page 38.) 

Letter from Hon. C. Tait, Member of Congress 
from Georgia. 

Washington, Jan'y 25th, 1819. 

Dear Sir : — Of late an inquiry, and in some 
instances a controversy, has arisen respecting the 
origin of the American Revolution. Some say it be- 
gan in Virginia, and for this honor the Virginians 
strenuously contend. The people of New England 
assert that it commenced in the Town of Boston, 
and much has been written of late on the subject. 
This controversy has been dignified by a correspond- 
ence between two ex-Presidents of the U. S., — Adams 
and Jefferson. Other parts of the country begin to 
put in their pretensions to an early mo vein' t in this 
great event, which is destined to influence the affairs of 
mankind. North Carolina thinks she has some claims 
in this regard ; and Mr. Macon of the Senate is collect- 
ing what information he can on the subject. It appears 
by a document lately furnished him that the people 
of the county of Mecklenburg of that State, so early as 
on the 20th of May, 1775, declared themselves inde- 



114 DOCUMENTS CITED IN PRECEDING ADDRESS. 

pendent in due form in a Convention at the town of 
Charlotte. That Adam or Abram Alexander was 
the President of this Convention, and that John Mc- 
'Nitt Alexander was its Secretary or Clerk. It also 
appears by this curious Document that Capn James 
Jack was the person chosen to cany the proceedings 
of this Convention to the Continental Congress sit- 
ting at Philadelphia. Presuming that the Cap'n 
Jack is no other person than your respected father, I 
informed Mr. Macon he is still living in the County 
of Elbert and State of Georgia. This information 
has produced a request from Mr. Macon that I w T ould 
write to you and request it as a favour of you to for- 
ward to him any Document, or copy of a Document, 
which has any relation to the Mecklenburg Conven- 
tion, or of the revolutionary movements in that part 
of the country, at that early period. This I persuade 
myself you will with pleasure do. By possibility 
your father may have preserved, as a precious relic 
of those clays, some papers relating to the proceed- 
ings alluded to, and in which he bore an honorable 
part. If this is the case it will gratify Mr. Macon 
very much to get them or a copy of them. 

Present my respects to Mrs. Jack, to your father 
and mother, and believe me, 

Yours, &cT; &c., 

(Signed.) C. Tait. 

Gen. P. Jack. 

P. S. — Mr. Macon will be very glad to hear from 
you before the adjournment of Congress; his given 
name is Nathaniel. C. T. 



APPENDIX 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

By the Citizens of Mecklenburg County, on the tioentieth day of 
I, 1775, with accompanying documents, published by 
the Governor, under the authority and direc- 
tion of the General Assembly of the 
State of North Carolina. 



PREFACE. 

The resolution of the General Assembly directing 
this publication, makes it the duty of the Governor to 
cause to be published in pamphlet form the Report of 
the Committee relative to the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and the accompanying documents, in the follow- 
ing order, viz. : 1. The Mecklenburg Declaration, with 
the names of the Delegates composing the meeting. 
2. The certificates testifying to the circumstances at- 
tending the Declaration; and 3. The proceedings of 
the Cumberland Association. 

In the discharge of this duty, the Governor has deemed 
it proper to prefix to the publication the following brief 
review of the evidence by which the authenticity of this 
interesting portion of the history of North Carolina is 
controverted and sustained. 

On the 30th of April, 1819, the publication marked 
A, made its appearance in the Raleigh Register. It 
was communicated to the editors of that paper by Doct. 
Joseph McKnitt, then and now a citizen of the county of 
Mecklenburg, and was speedily republished in most of 



116 APPENDIX. 

the newspapers in the Union. A paper containing it 
(the Essex Register) was, it seems, on the 22d June, 
1819, enclosed to Mr. Jefferson, by his illustrious com- 
patriot, John Adams, accompanied with the remark, 
that he thought it genuine ; and this suggestion of Mr. 
Adams elicited the following reply, which was at that 
time published in various newspapers, and has been 
since given to the world in the 4th volume of Mr. 
Jefferson's Works, page 311: 

TO JOHN ADAMS. 

"Monticello, July 9, 1819. 

" Dear Sir, — I am in debt to you for your letters of 
May the 21st, 27th, and June the 22nd. The first, de- 
livered me by Mr. Greenwood, gave me the gratification 
of his acquaintance ; and a gratification it always is, to 
be made acquainted with gentlemen of candor, worth, 
and information, as I found Mr. Greenwood to be. 
That on the subject of Mr. Samuel Adams Wells, shall 
not be forgotten in time and place, when it can be used 
to his advantage. 

"But what has attracted my peculiar notice, is the 
paper from Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, 
published in the Essex Eegister, which you were so kind 
as to enclose in your last, of June the 22nd. And you 
seem to think it genuine. I believe it spurious. I 
deem it to be a very unjustifiable quiz, like that of the 
volcano, so minutely related to us as having broken out 
in North Carolina, some half dozen years ago, in that 
part of the country, and perhaps in that very county 
of Mecklenburg, for I do not remember its precise 
locality. If this paper be really taken from the Raleigh 



APPENDIX. 117 

Register, as quoted, I wonder it should have escaped 
Ritchie, who culls what is good from every paper, as the 
bee from every flower; and the National Intelligencer, 
too, which is edited by a North Carolinian ; and that 
the fire should blaze out all at once in Essex, one thou- 
sand miles from where the spark is said to have fallen. 
But if really taken from the Raleigh Register, who is 
the narrator, and is the name subscribed real, or is it as 
fictitious as the paper itself? It appeals, too, to an orig- 
inal book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is 
dead, to a joint letter from Caswell, Hewes, and 
Hooper, all dead, to a copy sent to the dead Caswell, and 
another sent to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, 
whose memory did not recollect, in the history he has 
written of North Carolina, this gigantic step of its 
county of Mecklenburg. Horry, too, is silent in his 
history of Marion, whose scene of action was the country- 
bordering on Mecklenburg. Ramsay, Marshall, Jones, 
Girardin, Wirt, historians of the adjacent States, all 
silent. When Mr. Henry's resolutions, far short of in- 
dependence, flew like lightning through every paper, 
and kindled both sides of the Atlantic, this flaming 
declaration of the same date, of the independence of 
Mecklenburg county, of North Carolina, absolving it 
from the British allegiance, and abjuring all political 
connection with that nation, although sent to Congress, 
too, is never heard of. It is not known even a twelve- 
month after, when a similar proposition is first made in 
that body. Armed with this bold example, would not 
you have addressed our timid brethren in peals of thun- 
der, on their tardy fears ? Would not every advocate 
of independence have rung the glories of Mecklenburg 
conntv, in North Carolina, in the ears of the doubting 



118 APPENDIX. 

Dickinson and others, who hung so heavily on us ? 
Yet the example of independent Mecklenburg county, 
in North Carolina, was never once quoted. The paper 
speaks, too, of the continued exertions of their delega- 
tion (Caswell, Hooper, Hewes,) 'in the cause of liberty 
and independence.' Now, you remember as well as I 
do, that we had not a greater tory in Congress than 
Hooper ; that Hewes was very wavering, sometimes 
firm, sometimes feeble, according as the day was clear 
or cloudy ; that Caswell, indeed, was a good whig, and 
kept these gentlemen to the notch, while he was pres- 
ent ; but that he left us soon, and their line of conduct 
became then uncertain until Penn came, who fixed 
Hewes, and the vote of the State. I must not be un- 
derstood as suggesting any doubtfulness in the State of 
North Carolina. No State was more fixed or forward. 
Nor do I affirm, positively, that this paper is a fabrica- 
tion, because the proof of a negative can only be pre- 
sumptive. But I shall believe it such until positive 
and solemn proof of its authenticity shall be produced. 
And if the name of McKnitt be real, and not a part of 
the fabrication, it needs a vindication by the production 
of such proof. For the present, I must be an unbeliever 
in the apocryphal gospel. 

"I am glad to learn that Mr. Ticknor has safely re- 
turned to his friends ; but should have been much more 
pleased had he accepted the Professorship in our Uni- . 
versity, which we should have offered him in form. 
Mr. Bowditch, too, refuses us; so fascinating is the vin- 
culum of the duke natale solum. Our wish is to pro- 
cure natives, where they can be found, like these gen- 
tlemen, of the first order of acquirement in their respect- 
ive lines; but preferring foreigners of the first order to 



APPENDIX. 119 

natives of the second, we shall certainly have to go, for 
several of our Professors, to countries more advanced 
in science than we are. 

" I set out within three or four days for my other 
home, the distance of which, and its cross mails, are 
great impediments to epistolary communications. I 
shall remain there about two months; and there, here, 
and everywhere, I am and shall always be, affectionately 
and respectfully yours, 

" TH : JEFFERSON." 

The republication of this letter in a work which is 
intended for, and will go down to posterity, recom- 
mended alike by its intrinsic excellence, and the illus- 
trious name of the author, has imposed upon the Legis- 
lature the task of proving that, with regard to this 
particular fact, Mr. Jefferson was mistaken, and that 
his opinion was made up from a very superficial and 
inaccurate examination of the publication in the Raleigh 
Register, the only evidence then before him, and upon 
which his letter is a commentary. 

The letter itself was evidently written car rente cala- 
mo, and for that reason may not be regarded as a fair 
subject for severe criticism. It is not intended to subject 
it to such a test, nor is it designed to examine it further 
than may be necessary to the ascertainment of truth. 
Of the ability, the purity, the patriotism of the author, 
it is unnecessary to speak. His love of country was not 
bounded by the confines of Virginia; but it is no dis- 
credit to his memory that her institutions, her heroes 
and her statesmen occupied the first place in his affec- 
tions. She was emphatically /the mother of great 
men.' and ' his own, his native land ; ' and it is no mat- 



120 APPENDIX. 

ter of surprise that he should be unwilling, without the 
most ample -proof, to transfer the brightest page of her 
history to emblazon the records of a sister State. Mr. 
Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry had just been published, 
and for the latter was claimed the high distinction of 
having been the first to give motion to the ball of the 
Eevolution. Mr. Jefferson himself was the author of 
the Declaration of Independence by Congress, and was 
not disposed to share in any degree the immortality 
with which it had crowned him, with a comparatively 
obscure citizen of North Carolina; and, therefore, the 
evidence which was at once satisfactory to Mr. Adams, 
is by him pronounced " to be a very unjustifiable quiz." 
The grounds for this opinion, in the order in which 
they are given to Mr. Adams, are, 1. That the story is 
"like that of the volcano* having broken out in that 
part of the country, and perhaps in thai very county of 
Mecklenburg" 2. "If this paper be really taken from 
the Raleigh Register, as quoted, I wonder it should 
have escaped Ritchie," &c, " and that the fire should blaze 
out all at once in Essex, one thousand miles from where 
the spark is said to have fallen." 3. " But if really 
taken from the Raleigh Register, ivlio is the narrator, 
and is the name subscribed real, or is it as fictitious 
as the paper itself?" 4. "It appeals, too, to an original 
book, which is burnt, to Mr. Alexander, who is dead, 
to a joint letter from Caswell, Hewes, and Hooper, all 
dead, to a copy sent to the dead Casivell, and another 



* The hoax alluded to was published in 1812, and represented 
the volcano as having broken out in the neighborhood of the 
Warm Springs, in Buncombe, a point nearly as distant from the 
county of Mecklenburg as from Monticello. 



APPENDIX. 121 

sent to Doctor Williamson, now probably dead, whose 
memory did not recollect, in the history he has written 
of North Carolina, this gigantic step of its county of 
Mecklenburg? &c, &c. 

Without further remark with regard to the first 
point — the quiz about the volcano — or the second, 
whether the "spurious" paper was really published in 
the Raleigh Register, it is proper to say, in reply to the 
third argument, that the name subscribed is real, that 
the individual still lives, that he is moreover a credible 
witness, and that it is to his laudable attention and ex- 
ertions that the State is indebted for the preservation 
of much of the testimony which is now offered to the 
public. The fourth argument demands, and will re- 
ceive more particular attention and examination. 

The paper appeals to a book, which is burnt; to Mr. 
Alexander, wdio is dead; to Messrs. Caswell, Hooper, 
and Hewes, all dead; to a copy sent to "the dead 
Caswell," and another, sent to Doct.Williamson, proba- 
bly dead, are the consecutive facts which Mr. Jeffer- 
son states, and on which he relies. Admit the premises, 
and the conclusion would be probable, though not inevi- 
table ; and a writer of much less ability, if permitted to 
assume his facts, might predicate upon them not only 
a very plausible, but an unanswerable argument. The 
very fact, however, on which Mr. Jefferson rests, as the 
climax of improbabilities, is not only not proved to 
exist, but, upon his own showing, does not exist ; and 
justifies the remark in the outset, that his letter was 
written in haste, upon a very superficial and imperfect 
view of the subject. The paper does not appeal "to 
the dead Caswell," but to the then living Davie, a 
native of the section of country in which the event 



122 APPENDIX. 

occurred, like the former, a distinguished hero of the 
Revolution, and, in every respect, a proper depositary of 
the record. The following is the statement in question : 
(See the paper A.) ("The foregoing is a true copy of 
the papers, on the above subject, left in my bands by 
John McKnitt Alexander, dec'd. I find it mentioned on 
file, that the original book was burned April, 1800. That 
a copy of the proceedings was sent to *Hugh Williamson, 
in New York, then writing a history of North Carolina, 
and that a copy was sent to Gen. W. It. Davie.") Gen. 
Davie died shortly after the date of Mr. Jefferson's let- 
ter; but this identical copy, known by the writer of 
these remarks to be in the hand-writing of John McKnitt 
Alexander, one of the Secretaries of the Mecklenburg 
meeting, is now in the Executive Office of this State. (See 
Doct. Henderson's certificate, B.) Caswell, Hooper, and 
Heives are all dead ; but Capt. Jack, who was appointed 
to carry to them, at Philadelphia, this Mecklenburg 
Declaration, lived long enough to bear testimony to the 
truth; and his statement (C) is circumstantial, expli- 
cit and satisfactory. If it needed confirmation, it 
would be found to be fully sustained by the interesting 
communication (D) of the late Rev. Francis Cummins, 
D.D., of Georgia, to the Hon. Nathaniel Macon. More 

* This copy the writer well recollects to liave seen in the pos- 
session of Doct. Williamson, in the year 1793, in Fayetteville, 
together with a letter to him from John McKnitt Alexander, and 
to have conversed with him on the subject. Why it is not men- 
tioned in his History, is not strange to any one who knows the 
State, and has read the book. It cannot be regarded as a history 
of any country. The memorable Report and Resolutions of the 
Congress of April, 1776, are alike unnoticed. A correct and sat- 
isfactory account of both proceedings will be found in the last 
chapter of Martin's History of North Carolina. 



APPENDIX. 123 

satisfactory evidence, drawn from more respectable 
sources, Mr. Jefferson, if alive, could not, and would not 
require. It is not hazarding too much to say, that there 
is no one event of the Revolution which has been, or can 
be more fully or clearly authenticated. 

It is, perhaps, needless to multiply proofs, or to ex- 
tend this article. Col. William Polk is a resident of 
this city, a venerable remnant of the Revolutionary stock, 
has passed the common boundary of human life, and in 
a green old age, is in the full possession of his faculties. 
His compatriots, Caswell, and Hooper, and Hewes, are 
dead, hut he lives, was present, heard his father proclaim 
the Declaration to the assembled multitude ; and need it 
be inquired, in any portion of this Union, if lie will be 
believed ? 

The letter (E) of Gen. Joseph Graham, another sur- 
viving officer of the Revolution, a citizen and a soldier 
worthy of the best days of the Republic, will be read 
with pleasure and perfect confidence throughout the 
wide range of his acquaintance. 

The extract from the memoir of the late Rev. Hum- 
phrey Hunter (F), of Lincoln, is equally explicit, full 
and satisfactory. He, with several other respectable 
gentlemen, whose statements are appended, was an eye- 
witness of what he relates ; and the combined testimony 
of all these individuals prove the existence of the 
Mecklenburg Declaration, and all the circumstances 
connected with it, as fully and clearly as any fact can 
be shown by human testimony. 

The following extract from "The Journal of the 
Provincial Congress of North Carolina, held at Halifax, 
on the 4th April, 1776 " (pp. 11, 12), shows that the first 
legislative recommendation of a Declaration" of Inde- 



124 APPENDIX. 

pendence by the Continental Congress, originated 
likewise in the State of North Carolina. It is worthy 
of remark, that John McKnitt Alexander, the Secretary 
of the meeting, Waightstill Avery, John Pfifer and 
Robert Irwin, who were conspicuous actors in the pro- 
ceedings in Mecklenburg, were active and influential 
members of this Provincial Congress. 

" The select committee to take into consideration the 
usurpations and violences attempted and committed by 
the King and Parliament of Britain against America, and 
the further measures to be taken for frustrating the 
same, and for the better defence of this Province, re- 
ported as follows, to wit : 

" It appears to your committee, that pursuant to the 
plan concerted by the British Ministry for subjugating 
America, the King and Parliament of Great Britain have 
usurped a power over the persons and properties of the 
people unlimited and uncontrolled; and disregarding 
their humble petitions of peace, liberty, and safety, have 
made divers legislative acts, denouncing war, famine, 
and every species of calamity, against the Continent in 
general. The British fleets and armies have been, and 
still are daily employed in destroying the people, and 
committing the most horrid devastations on the coun- 
try. That Governors in different Colonies have de- 
clared protection to slaves who should imbrue their 
hands in the blood of their masters. That the ships 
belonging to America are declared prizes of war, and 
many of them have been violently seized and confisca- 
ted. In consequence of all which multitudes of the 
people have been destroyed, or from easy circumstances 
reduced to the most lamentable distress. 



APPENDIX. 125 

" And whereas the moderation hitherto manifested 
by the United Colonies, and their sincere desire to be 
reconciled to the mother country on constitutional prin- 
ciples, have procured no mitigation of the aforesaid 
wrongs and usurpations, and no hopes remain of ob- 
taining redress by those means alone which have been 
hitherto tried, your committee are of opinion that the 
House should enter into the following resolve, to wit: 

"Resolved, That the Delegates for this Colony 
in the Continental Congress be impowered to 
concur with the delegates of the other colo- 
nies in declaring independency, and forming 
foreign alliances, reserving to this Colony the sole 
and exclusive right of forming a Constitution and laws 
for this Colony, and of appointing Delegates from time 
to time (mider the direction of a general representation 
thereof), to meet the Delegates of the other Colonies, 
for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out. 

" The Congress taking the same into consideration, 
unanimously concurred therewith." 

The striking similarity of expression in the conclud- 
ing sentences of the Mecklenburg Declaration, and the 
Declaration by Congress on the 4th of July, 1776, has 
been repeatedly urged and relied upon as disproving 
the authenticity of the former. It is scarcely necessary 
to reply to this suggestion. It is not very strange 
that men who think alike should speak alike upon the 
same subject, more especially when high-toned patriotic 
feeling seeks for utterance. This similarity of expres- 
sion is not confined, however, to these two papers. A 
comparison of the foregoing resolutions with the Dec- 
laration, as drawn by Mr. Jefferson, will satisfy the 



126 APPENDIX. 

most credulous upon this subject. Who suspects Mr. 
Jefferson of intentional plagiarism? and yet he might 
be charged with having appropriated the language of 
the Provincial Legislature, Avith at least as much pro- 
priety as Mr. Alexander with having forged the Meck- 
lenburg Declaration. The sentiments embodied by Mr. 
Jefferson were not peculiar to himself, but adopted by 
him as expressive of the common feeling in the common 
language of that eventful period. 



REPORT AND RESOLUTIONS, 

ADOPTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT THE SESSION" 
OF 1830-31, UPON" WHICH THIS PUBLICATION IS 
PREDICATED. 

The committee to whom it was referred to examine, 
collate and arrange in proper order such parts of the 
Journals of the Provincial Assemblies of North Caro- 
lina, as relate to the Declaration of American Independ- 
ence ; also such documents as relate to the Declaration 
of Independence made by the patriotic men of Mecklen- 
burg in May, 1775 ; and also such measures as relate to 
the same cause, adopted by the freemen of Cumberland 
county, previous to the 4th of July, 1776, in order to 
the publication and distribution of such documents, 
having performed the duty assigned them, respectfully 
report : 

That upon an attentive examination of the Journals 
of the Provincial Assembly of North Carolina, which 
met at Halifax in the month of April, 1776, the com- 
mittee are of opinion, that no selection could be made 



APPENDIX. 127 

from the said Journal to answer the purpose of the 
House. But as everything relating to that period 
must be interesting to those who value the blessing of 
national independence, the committee recommend that 
the whole of the Journal be printed, and receive the 
same extended distribution which the resolution of the 
House contemplates for the proceedings in Mecklen- 
burg and Cumberland. This course is deemed by the 
committee the more proper, because the Journal is now 
out of print, and it is highly probable that the copy in 
the possession of the committee is the only one now 
extant. 

Your committee have also examined, collated, and ar- 
ranged all the documents which have been accessible 
to them, touching the Declaration of Independence by 
the citizens of Mecklenburg, and the proceedings of the 
freemen of Cumberland. 

By the publication of these papers, it will be fully 
verified, that as early as the month of May, 1775, a por- 
tion of the people of North Carolina, sensible that their 
wrongs could no longer be borne, without sacrificing 
both safety and honor, and that redress so often sought, 
so patiently waited for, and so cruelly delayed, was no 
longer to be expected, did, by a public and solemn act, 
declare the dissolution of the ties which bound them to 
the crown and people of Great Britain, and did estab- 
lish an independent, though temporary government for 
their own control and direction. 

The first claim of Independence evinces such high 
sentiments of valor and patriotism, that we cannot, and 
ought not, lightly to esteem the honor of having made 
it. The fact of the Declaration should be announced, 
its language should be published and perpetuated, and 



1 2S APPENDIX. 

the names of the gallant representatives of Mecklen- 
burg, with whom it originated, should be preserved 
from an oblivion, which, should it involve them, would 
as much dishonor us, as injure them. If the thought 
of Independence did not first occur to them, to them, 
at least, belongs the proud distinction of having first 
given language to the thought; and it should be 
known, and, fortunately, it can still be conclusively es- 
tablished, that the Eevolution received it first impulse 
towards Independence, however feeble that impulse 
might have been, in North Carolina. The committee 
are aware that this assertion has elsewhere been received 
with doubt, and at times met with denial ; and it is, 
therefore, believed to be more strongly incumbent upon 
the House to usher to the Avorld the Mecklenburg Dec- 
laration, accompanied with such testimonials of its 
genuineness, as shall silence incredulity, and with such 
care for its general diffusion, as shall forever secure it 
from being forgotten. And in recounting the Causes, 
the origin and the progress of our Revolutionary strug- 
gle, till its final issue in acknowledged independence, 
whatever the brilliant achievements of other States may 
have been, let it never be forgotten, that at a period of 
darkness and oppression, without concert with others, 
without assurances of support from any quarter, a few 
gallant North Carolinians, all fear of consequences lost 
in a sense of their country's wrongs, relying, under 
Heaven, solely upon themselves, nobly dared to assert, 
and resolved to maintain, that independence, of which, 
whoever might have thought, none had then spoken ; 
and thus earned for themselves, and for their fellow- 
citizens of North Carolina, the honor of giving birth 
to the first Declaration of Independence. 



APPENDIX. 129 

The committee respectfully recommend the adoption 
of the following resolutions. 
All of which is submitted. 

THOS. G. POLK, Chr'n, 
JOHN BRAGG, 
EVAN ALEXANDER, 
LOUIS D. HENRY, 
ALEX. M'NEILL. 

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be di- 
rected to cause to be published in pamphlet form the 
above Report and the accompanying documents, in the 
manner and order following, viz. : After the Report, 
first, the Mecklenburg Declaration, with the names of 
the Delegates composing the meeting; second, the Cer- 
tificates, testifying to the circumstances attending the 
Declaration ; third, the proceedings of the Cumberland 
Association. And that he be further directed to have 
reprinted, in like manner, separate and distinct from 
the above, the accompanying Journal of the Provincial 
Assembly, held at Halifax in 1776. 

Resolved further, That after publication, the Govern- 
or be instructed to distribute said documents as follows, 
to wit: Twenty copies of each to the Library of the 
State ; to each of the Libraries at the University, ten 
copies; to the Library of the Congress of the United 
States, ten copies ; and one copy to each of the Execu- 
tives of the several States of the Union. 



130 APPENDIX. 

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

. May 20, 1775. 

names of the delegates present. 

Col. Thomas Polk:, Jno. M'Knitt Alexander, 

Ephraim Brevard, Hezekiah Alexander, 

Hezekiah J. Balch, Adam Alexander, 

John Phifer, Charles Alexander, 

James Harris, Zacheus Wilson, Sen., 

William Kennon, Waightstill Ayery, 

John Ford, Benjamin Patton, 

Richard Barry, Matthew M'Clure, 

Henry Downs, Neil Morrison, 

Ezra Alexander, Robert Irwin, 

William Graham, John Flenniken, 

John Queary, David Reese, 
Abraham Alexander, Richard Harris, Sen. 

Abraham Alexander, was appointed Chairman, 
and John M'Knitt Alexander, Clerk. The follow- 
ing resolutions were offered, viz. : 

1st. Resolved, That whosoever directly or indirectly 
abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced 
the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, 
as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this coun- 
try, to America, and to the inherent and inalienable 
rights of man. 

2d. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg 
county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have 
connected us to the mother country, and hereby absolve 
ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and 
abjure all political connection, contract, or association, 



APPENDIX. 131 

with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on onr 
rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of 
American patriots at Lexington. 

3d. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a 
free and independent people; are, and of right ought 
to be, a sovereign and self-governing Association, under 
the control of no power other than that of our God and 
the general government of the Congress ; to the main- 
tenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to 
each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our for- 
tunes, and our most sacred honor. 

4th. Resolved, That as we now acknowledge the exist- 
ence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or mili- 
tary, within this county, we do hereby ordain and 
adopt as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former 
laws, — wherein, nevertheless, the Crown of Great Bri- 
tain never can be considered as holding rights, privil- 
eges, immunities, or authority therein. 

5th. Resolved, That it is further decreed, that all, 
each and every military officer in this county, is hereby 
reinstated in his former command and authority, he 
acting conformably to these regulations. And that 
every member present, of this delegation, shall hence- 
forth be a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the Peace, in 
the character of a " Committee-man," to issue process, 
hear and determine all matters of controversy, accord- 
ing to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, union 
and harmony in said county; — and to use every exertion 
to spread the love of country and lire of freedom 
throughout America, until a more general and organ- 
ized government be established in this province. 

After discussing the foregoing resolves, and arranging 
bye-laws and regulations for the government of a Stand- 



132 APPENDIX. 

ing Committee of Public Safety, who were selected from 
these delegates, the whole proceedings were unani- 
mously adopted and signed. A select committee was 
then appointed to draw a more full and definite state- 
ment of grievances, and a more formal Declaration of 
Independence. The Delegation then adjourned about 
2 o'clock, A.M., May 20. 



A. 

FROM THE RALEIGH REGISTER OF APRIL 30, 1819. 

It is not, probably, known to many of our readers, 
that the citizens of Mecklenburg county, in this State, 
made a Declaration of Independence more than a year 
before Congress made theirs. The following document 
on the subject has lately come to the hands of the Edi- 
tor from unquestionable authority, and is published 
that it may go down to posterity. 

North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, ) 
May 20, 1775. ] 

In the spring of 1775, the leading characters of Meck- 
lenburg county, stimulated by that enthusiastic patri- 
otism which elevates the mind above considerations of 
individual aggrandizement, and scorning to shelter 
themselves from the impending storm by submission to 
lawless power, etc., etc., held several detached meetings, 
in each of which the individual sentiments were, " that 
the cause of Boston was the cause of all; that their des- 
tinies were indissolubly connected with those of their 
Eastern fellow-citizens — and that they must either sub- 
mit to all the impositions which an unprincipled, and 



APPENDIX. 133 

to them an unrepresented, Parliament might impose — or 
support their brethren who were doomed to sustain the 
first shock of that power, which, if successful there, 
would ultimately overwhelm all in the common calami- 
ty." Conformably to these principles, Colonel T. Polk, 
through solicitation, issued an order to each Captain's 
comjmny in the county of Mecklenburg, (then compris- 
ing the present county of Cabarrus,) directing each mili- 
tia company to elect two persons, and delegate to them 
ample power to devise ways and means to aid and 
assist their suffering brethren in Boston, and also 
generally to adopt measures to extricate themselves 
from the impending storm, and to secure unimpaired 
their inalienable rights, privileges and liberties, from 
the dominant grasp of British imposition and tyranny. 

In conformity to said order, on the 19th of May, 
1775, the said delegation met in Charlotte, vested with 
unlimited powers; at which time official news, by ex- 
press, arrived of the battle of Lexington on that day of 
the preceding month. Every delegate felt the value and 
importance of the prize, and the awful and solemn cri- 
sis which had arrived — every bosom swelled with indig- 
nation at the malice, inveteracy, and insatiable revenge, 
developed in the late attack at Lexington. The univer- 
sal sentiment was : let us not flatter ourselves that popu- 
lar harangues, or resolves ; that popular vapour will avert 
the storm, or vanquish our common enemy — let us de- 
liberate — let us calculate the issue — the probable result; 
and then let us act with energy, as brethren leagued to 
preserve our property — our lives — and what is still more 
endearing, the liberties of America. Abraham Alexan- 
der was then elected Chairman, and Jolin M'Knitt 
Alexander^ Clerk. After a free and full discussion of 



134 APPENDIX. 

the various objects for which the delegation had been 
convened, it was unanimously ordained — 

1. Resolved^ That whoever directly or indirectly 
abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced 
the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, 
as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this coun- 
try — to America — and to the inherent and inalienable, 
rights of man. 

2. Resolved, That we the citizens of Mecklenburg 
county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which 
have connected us to the Mother Country, and hereby 
absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British 
Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or 
association, with that nation, who have wantonly tram- 
pled on our rights and liberties — and inhumanly shed 
the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington. 

3. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a 
free and independent people, are, and of right ought 
to be, a sovereign and self-governing Association, under 
the control of no power other than that of our God and 
the General Government of the Congress ; to the main- 
tenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to 
each other, our mutual co-operation, our lives, our for- 
tunes, and our most sacred honor. 

4. Resolved, That as we noiv acknowledge the exis- 
tence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or 
military, within this county, we do hereby ordain and 
adopt, as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former 
laws, wherein, nevertheless, the Crown of Great Britain 
never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, 
immunities, or authority therein. 

5. Resolved, That it is also further decreed, that all, 



APPENDIX. 135 

each and every military officer in this county, is hereby 
reinstated to his former command and authority, he 
acting- conformably to these regulations. And that every 
member present of this delegation shall henceforth be 
a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the Peace, in the char- 
acter of a " Committee-man" to issue process, hear and 
determine all matters of controversy, according to said 
adopted laws, and to preserve peace, and union, and 
harmony, in said county, — and to use every exertion to 
spread the love of country and fire of freedom through- 
out America, until a more general and organized gov- * 
ernment be established in this province. 

A number of by-laws were also added, merely to pro- 
tect the association from confusion, and to regulate 
their general conduct as citizens. After sitting in the 
Court House all night, neither sleepy, hungry, nor 
fatigued, and after discussing every paragraph, .they 
were all passed, sanctioned, and decreed, unanimously, 
about 2 o'clock, a.m., May 20. In a few days, a depu- 
tation of said delegation convened, when Capt. James 
Jack, of Charlotte, was deputed as express to the Con- 
gress at Philadelphia, with a copy of said Eesolves and 
Proceedings, together with a letter addressed to our 
three representatives there, viz., Richard Casivell, Wil- 
liam Hooper and Joseph Heives — under express in- 
junction, personally, and through the State representa- 
tion, to use all possible means to have said pro- 
ceedings sanctioned and approved by the General 
Congress. On the return of Captain Jack, the delega- 
tion learned that their proceedings were individually 
approved by the Members of Congress, but that it was 
deemed premature to lay them before the House. A 



136 APPENDIX. 

joint letter from said three Members of Congress was 
also received, complimentary of the zeal in the common 
cause, and recommending perseverance, order and energy. 

The subsequent harmony, unanimity, and exertion in 
the cause of liberty and independence, evidently result- 
ing from these regulations and the continued exertion 
of said delegation, apparently tranquillized this section 
of the State, and met with the concurrence and high 
approbation of the Council of Safety, who held their 
sessions at Newbern and Wilmington, alternately, and 
who confirmed the nomination and acts of the delega- 
tion in their official capacity. 

From this delegation originated the Court of Enquiry 
of this county, who constituted and held their first ses- 
sion in Charlotte — they then held their meetings regu- 
larly at Charlotte, at Col. James Harris's, and at Col. 
Phifer's, alternately, one week at each place. It was a 
Civil Court founded on military process. Before this 
Judicature, all suspicious persons were made to appear, 
who were formally tried and banished, or continued 
under guard. Its jurisdiction was as unlimited as tory- 
ism, and its decrees as final as the confidence and patri- 
otism of the county. Several were arrested and brought 
before them from Lincoln, Rowan and the adjacent 
counties. 

[The foregoing is a true copy of the papers on the 
above subject, left in my hands by John McKnitt Alex- 
ander, dec'd. I find it mentioned on file that the origi- 
nal book was burned April, 1800. That a copy of the 
proceedings was sent to Hugh Williamson, in New 
York, then Writing a History of North Carolina, and 
that a copy was sent to Gen. W. R. Davie. 

J. McKNITT.l 



APFENDIX. 137 

B. 

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,) 
Mecklenburg County. [ 

I, Samuel Henderson, do hereby certify, that the 
paper annexed was obtained by me from Maj. William 
Davie in its present situation, soon after the death of 
his father, Gen. William R. Davie, and given to Doct. 
Joseph McKnitt by me. In searching for some par- 
ticular paper, I came across this, and, knowing the 
hand-writing of John McKnitt Alexander, took it up, 
and examined it. Maj. Davie said to me (when asked 
how it became torn) his sisters had torn it, not know- 
ing what it was. 

Given under my hand, this 25th Nov., 1830. 

SAM. HENDERSON. 

[Note. — To this certificate of Doct. Henderson is annexed the 
copy of the paper A, originally deposited by John McKnitt Alex- 
ander in the hands of Gen. Davie, whose name seems to have 
been mistaken by Mr. Jefferson for that of Gov. Caswell. See 
preface, pages 5 and 6. This paper is somewhat torn, but is 
entirely legible, and constitutes the "solemn and positive proof 
of authenticity" which Mr. Jefferson required, and which would 
doubtless have been satisfactory, had it been submitted to him.] 



0. 

CAPTAIN JACK'S CERTIFICATE. 

Having seen in the newspapers some pieces respect- 
ing the Declaration of Independence by the people of 
Mecklenburg county, in the State of North Carolina, in 
May, 1775, and being solicited to state what I know of 
that transaction ; I would observe, that for some time 
previous to, and at the time those resolutions were 



138 APPENDIX. 

agreed upon, I resided in the town of Charlotte, Meck- 
lenburg county ; was privy to a number of meetings of 
some of the most influential and leading characters of 
that county on the subject, before the final adoption of 
the resolutions — and at the time they were adopted ; 
among those who appeared to take the lead, may be 
mentioned Hezekiah Alexander, who generally acted as 
Chairman, John McKnitt Alexander, as Secretary, 
Abraham Alexander, Adam Alexander, Maj. John Da- 
vidson, Maj. (afterwards Gen.) Win. Davidson, Col. 
Thomas Polk, Ezekiel Polk, Dr. Ephraim Brevard, 
Samuel Martin, Duncan Ochletree, William Willson, 
Robert Irvin. 

When the resolutions were finally agreed on, they 
were publicly proclaimed from the Court-house door 
in the town of Charlotte, and received with every dem- 
onstration of joy by the inhabitants. 

I was then solicited to be the bearer of the proceed- 
ings to Congress. I set out the following month, say 
June, and in passing through Salisbury, the General 
Court was sitting — at the request of the court I handed 
a copy of the resolutions to Col. Kennon, an Attorney, 
and they were read aloud in open court. Major William 
Davidson, and Mr. Avery, an attorney, called on me at 
my lodgings the evening after, and observed, they had 
heard of but one person, (a Mr. Beard) but approved 
of them. 

I then proceeded on to Philadelphia, and delivered 
the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of May, 
1775, to Richard Caswell and William Hooper, the 
Delegates to Congress from the State of North Carolina. 

I am now in the eighty-eighth year of my age, resid- 
ing in the county of Elbert, in the State of Georgia. I 



APPENDIX. 139 

was in the Revolutionary War, from the commence- 
ment to the close. I would further observe, that the 
Rev. Francis Cummins, a Presbyterian Clergyman, of 
Greene county, in this State, was a student in the town 
of Charlotte at the time of the adoption of the resolu- 
tions, and is as well, or perhaps better acquainted with 
the proceedings at that time, than any man now 
living. 

Col. William Polk, of Raleigh, in North Carolina, 
was living with his father Thomas, in Charlotte, at the 
time I have been speaking of, and although then too 
young to be forward in the business, yet the leading 
circumstances I have related cannot have escaped his 
recollection. 

JAMES JACK. 

Signed this 7th Dec, 1819, in presence of 

JOB WESTON, C. C. 0. 
JAMES OLIVER, Atto. at Law. 



C 2. 

NORTH CAROLINA, ) 

Cabarrus County, Nov. 29, 1830. j 

We, the undersigned, do hereby certify that we have 
frequently heard William S. Alexander, dec'd, say that 
he, the said Wm. S. Alexander, was at Philadelphia, on 
mercantile business, in the early part of the summer of 
1775, say in June ; and that on the day that Gen. 
Washington left Philadelphia to take the command of 
the Northern army, he, the said Wm. S. Alexander, met 
with Capt. James Jack, who informed him, the said 
William S. Alexander, that he, the said James Jack, 



140 APPENDIX. 

was there as the agent or bearer of the Declaration of 
Independence made in Charlotte, on the twentieth day 
of May, seventeen hundred and seventy-five, by the 
citizens of Mecklenburg, then including Cabarrus, with 
instructions to present the same to the Delegates from. 
North Carolina, and by them to be laid before Congress, 
and which he said he had done ; in which Declaration 
the aforesaid citizens of Mecklenburg renounced their 
allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and set up a 
government for themselves, under the title of The Com- 
mittee of Safety. 

Given under our hands the date above written. 

ALPHONSO ALEXANDER, 
AMOS ALEXANDER, 
J. McKNITT. 



D. 

Lexington, (Georgia,) November 10, 1819. 

Dear Sir : — The bearer, the Hon. Thomas W. Cobb, 
has suggested to me that you had a desire to know 
something particularly of the proceedings of the citizens 
of Mecklenburg county, in North Carolina, about the 
beginning of our Revolutionary War. 

Previous to my becoming more particular, I will sup- 
pose you remember the Regulation business, which 
took its rise in or before the year 1770, and issued and 
ended in a battle between the Regulators and Governor 
Tryon, in the spring of 1771. Some of the Regulators 
were killed, and the whole dispersed. The Regulators' 
conduct " was a rudis indigestaque moles/' as Ovid says, 



APPENDIX. 141 

about the beginning of creation; but the embryotic 
principles of the Ke volution were in their temper and 
views. They wanted strength, consistency, a Congress 
and a Washington at their head. Try on sent his offi- 
cers and minions through the State, and imposed the 
oath of allegiance upon the people, even as far up as 
Mecklenburg county. In the year 1775, after our Revo- 
lution began, the principal characters of Mecklenburg 
county met on two sundry days, in Queen's Museum in 
Charlotte, to digest Articles for a State Constitution, in 
anticipation that the Province would proceed to do so. 
In this business the leading characters were, the Rev. 
Hezekiah James Balch, a graduate of Princeton Col- 
lege, an elegant scholar; Waightstill Avery, Esq., At- 
torney at Law ; Hezekiah and John McKnitt Alexan- 
der, Esqrs.,Col. Thomas Polk, etc., etc. 

Many men, and young men, (myself one,) before 
magistrates, abjured allegiance to George III., or any 
other foreign power. At length, in the same year, 1775, 
I think, at least positively before July 4th, 1776, the 
males generally of that county met on a certain day in 
Charlotte, and from the head of the Court-house stairs 
proclaimed Independence on English Government, by 
their herald Col. Thomas Polk. I was present, and 
saw and heard it, and as a young man, and then a 
student in Queen's Museum, was an agent in these 
things. I did not then take and keep the dates, and 
cannot, as to date, be so particular as I could wish. 
Capt. James Jack, then of Charlotte, but now of Elbert 
county, in Georgia, was sent with the* account of these 
proceedings to Congress, then in Philadelphia — and 
brought back to the county, the thanks of Congress for 
their zeal — and the advice of Congress to be a little 



142 APPENDIX. 

more patient, until Congress should take the measures 
thought to be best. 

I would suppose, sir, that some minutes of these 
things must be found among the records of the first 
Congress, that would perfectly settle their dates. I am 
perfectly sure, being present at the whole of them, 
they were before our National Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. 

Hon. Sir, if the above few things can afford you any 
gratification, it will add to the happiness of your friend 
and humble servant. 

FRANCIS CUMMINS. 

Hon". Nathaniel Macont. 



E. 
Vesuvius Furnace, 4th October, 1830. 

Dear Sir, — Agreeably to your request, I will give 
you the details of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Inde- 
pendence on the 20th of May, 1775, as well as I can rec- 
ollect after a lapse of fifty-five years. I was then a lad 
about half grown, was present on that occasion (a 
looker on). 

Duriug the Winter and Spring preceding that evenx, 
several popular meetings of the people were held in 
Charlotte ; two of which I attended. — Papers were read, 
grievances stated, and public measures discussed. As 
printing was not then common in the South, the papers 
were mostly manuscript ; one or more of which was 
from the pen of the Eeverend Doctor Eeese, (then of 
Mecklenburg,) which met with general approbation, 
and copies of it circulated.- It is to be regretted that 



APPENDIX. 143 

those and other papers published at that period, and 
the journal of their proceedings, are lost. — They would 
show much of the spirit and tone of thinking which 
prepared them for the measures they afterwards adopted. 

On the 20th of May, 1775, besides the two persons 
elected from each militia company, (usually called 
Committee-men,) a much larger number of citizens at- 
tended in Charlotte than at any former meeting — per- 
haps half the men in the county. The news of the bat- 
tle of Lexington, the 19th of April preceding, had 
arrived. There appeared among the people much ex- 
citement. The committee were organized in the Court- 
house by appointing Abraham Alexander, Esq., Chair- 
man, and John McKnitt Alexander, Esq., Clerk or Sec- 
retary to the meeting. 

After reading a number of papers as usual, and much 
animated discussion, the question was taken, and they 
resolved to declare themselves independent. One among 
other reasons offered, that the King or Ministry 
had, by proclamation or some edict, declared the Col- 
onies out of the protection of the British Crown ; they 
ought, therefore, to declare themselves out of his pro- 
tection, and resolve on independence. That their pro- 
ceedings might be in due form, a sub-committee, con- 
sisting of Doctor Ephraim Brevard, a Mr. Kennon, an 
attorney, and a third person, whom I do not recol- 
lect, were appointed to draft their Declaration. They 
retired from the Court-house for some time ; but the 
committee continued in session in it. One circum- 
stance occurred I. distinctly remember : A member of 
the committee, who had said but little before, addressed 
the Chairman as follows : " If you resolve on independ- 
ence, how shall we all be absolved from the obligations of 



1±± APPENDIX. 

the oath we took to be true to King George the 3d about 
four years ago, after the Regulation battle, when we 
were sworn whole militia companies together. I should 
be glad to know how gentlemen can clear their con- 
sciences after taking that oath.' 1 This speech produced 
confusion. The Chairman could scarcely preserve order, 
so many wished to reply. There appeared great indig- 
nation and contempt at the speech of the member. 
Some said it was nonsense; others that allegiance and 
protection were reciprocal ; when protection was with- 
drawn, allegiance ceased ; that the oath was only binding 
while the King protected us in the enjoyment of our 
rights and liberties as they existed at the time it 
was taken; which he had not done, but now declared 
us out of his protection ; therefore was not binding. 
Any man who would interpret it otherwise, was a fool. 
Byway of illustration, (pointing to a green tree near 
the Court-house,) stated, if he was sworn to do any 
thing as long as the leaves continued on that tree, it 
was so long binding; but when the leaves fell, he was 
discharged from its obligation. This was said to be 
certainly applicable in the present case. Out of respect 
for a worthy citizen, long since deceased, and his respect- 
able connections, I forbear to mention names ; for, 
though he was a friend to the cause, a suspicion rested 
on him in the public mind for some time after. 

The sub-committee appointed to draft the resolutions 
returned, and Doctor Ephraim Brevard read their re- 
port, as near as I can recollect, in the very words Ave 
have since seen them several times in print. It was 
unanimously adopted, and shortly after it was moved 
and seconded to have proclamation made and the peo- 
ple collected, that the proceedings be read at the Court- 



APPENDIX. 145 

house door, in order that all might hear them. Tt was 
done, and they were received with enthusiasm. It was 
then proposed by some one aloud to give three cheers and 
throw up their hats. It was immediately adopted, and 
the hats thrown. Several of them lit on the Court- 
house roof. The owners had some difficulty to reclaim 
them. 

The foregoing is all from personal knowledge. I un- 
derstood afterwards that Captain James Jack, then of 
Charlotte, undertook, on the request of the committee, 
to carry a copy of their proceedings to Congress, which 
then sat in Philadelphia; and on his way, at Salisbury, 
the time of court, Mr. Kennon, who was one of the com- 
mittee who assisted in drawing the Declaration, pre- 
vailed on Captain Jack to get his papers, and have them 
read publicly; which was done, and the proceedings 
met with general approbation. But two of the Lawyers, 
John Dunn and a Mr. Booth, dissented, and asserted 
they were treasonable, and endeavored to have Captain 
Jack detained. He drew his pistols, and threatened to 
kill the first man who would interrupt him, and passed 
on. The news of this reached Charlotte in a short time 
after, and the executive of the committee, whom they 
had invested with suitable powers, ordered a party of 
ten or twelve armed horsemen to bring said Lawyers from 
Salisbury; when they were brought, and the case in- 
vestigated before the committee. Dunn, on giving 
security and making fair promises, was permitted to re- 
turn, and Booth was sentenced to go to Camden, in 
South Carolina, out of the sphere of his influence. My 
brother George Graham and the late Col. John Carruth 
were of the party that went to Salisbury; and it is dis- 
tinctly remembered that when in Charlotte they came 



146 APPENDIX. 

home at night, in order to provide for their trip to 
Camden; and that they and two others of the party 
took Booth to that place. This was the first military 
expedition from Mecklenburg in the Revolutionary 
war, and believed to be the first any where to the 
South. 

Yours respectfully, 

J. GRAHAM. 
Dr. Jos. M'Kt. Alexander, 

Mecklenburg, N. Carolina. 



F. 

EXTRACT FROM THE MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. HUM- 
PHREY HUNTER. 

Orders were presently issued by Col. Thos. Polk to 
the several militia companies, that two men, selected 
from each corps, should meet at the Court-house on the 
19th of May, 1775, in order to consult with each other 
upon such measures as might be thought best to be 
pursued. Accordingly, on said day a far larger number 
than two out of each company were present. There was 
some difficulty in choosing the commissioners. To 
have chosen all thought to be worthy, would have ren- 
dered the meeting too numerous. The following were 
selected, and styled Delegates, and are here given, ac- 
cording to my best recollection, as they were placed on 
roll : Abram Alexander, sen'r, Thomas Pclk, Rich'd 
Harris, sen'r, Adam Alexander, Richard Barry, John 
McKnit Alexander, Neil Morison, Hezekiah Alexan- 
der, Hezekiah J. Balch, Zacheus Wilson, John Phifer, 
James Harris, William Kennon, John Ford, Henry 
Downs, Ezra Alexander, William Graham, John Queary, 
Chas. Alexander, Waightstill Avery, Ephraim Brevard, 



APPENDIX. 147 

Benjamin Patton, Matthew McClure, Kobert Irwin, 
John Flenniken, and David Eeese. 

Abram Alexander was nominated, and unanimously 
voted to the Chair. John McKnit Alexander and 
Ephraim Brevard were chosen Secretaries. The Chair 
being occupied, and the Clerks seated, the House was 
called to order and proceeded to business. Then a full, 
a free, and dispassionate discussion obtained on the 
various subjects for which the delegation had been con- 
vened, and the following resolutions were unanimously 
ordained: 

1st. Resolved, That whosoever directly or indirectly 
abetted, or in any way, form or manner, countenanced 
the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as 
claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country, • 
to America, and to the inherent and inalienable rights 
of man. 

2d. Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg 
county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which 
have connected us to the mother country, and hereby 
absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British 
Crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or 
association, with that nation, who have wantonly tram- 
pled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed 
the blood of American patriots at Lexington. 

3d. Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a 
free and independent people ; are, and of right ought to 
be, a sovereign and self-governing Association, under 
the control of no power other than that of our God and 
the general government of the Congress ; to the mainten- 
ance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each 
other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, 
and our most sacred honor. 



148 APPENDIX. 

4th. Resolved, That as we now acknowledge the exist- 
ence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or mili- 
tary, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt 
as a rule of life, all, each and every of our former laws, 
— wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain 
never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, 
immunities or authority therein. 

5th. Resolved, That it is further decreed, that all, 
each and every military officer in this county, is hereby 
reinstated in his former command and authority, he 
acting conformably to these regulations. And that every 
member present, of this delegation, shall henceforth be 
a civil officer, viz., a Justice of the Peace, in the charac- 
ter of a " Committee-man," to issue process, hear and 
•determine all matters of controversy, according to said 
adopted laws, and to preserve peace, union and harmony 
in said county ; — and to use every exertion to spread 
the love of country and fire of freedom throughout 
America, until a more general and organized govern- 
ment be established in this province. 

Those resolves having been concurred in, bye-laws and 
regulations for the government of a standing Commit- 
tee of Public Safety were enacted and acknowledged. 
Then a select committee was appointed, to report on 
the ensuing day a full and definite statement of griev- 
ances, together with a more correct and formal draft of 
the Declaration of Independence. The proceedings 
having been thus arranged and somewhat in readiness 
for promulgation, the Delegation then adjourned until 
to-morrow, at 12 o'clock. 

The 20th of May, at 12 o'clock, the Delegation, 
as above, had convened. The select committee were 
also present, and reported agreeably to instructions, viz. 



APPENDIX. 149 

a statement of grievances and formal draft of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, written by Ephraim Brevard, 
chairman of said committee, and read by him to the 
Delegation. The resolves, bye-laws and regulations were 
read by John McKnitt Alexander. It was then an- 
nounced from the Chair, are you all agreed ? There 
was not a dissenting voice. Finally, the whole proceed- 
ings were read distinctly and audibly, at the Court- 
house door, by Col. Thomas Polk, to a large, respectable 
and approving assemblage of citizens, who were present, 
and gave sanction to the business of the day. A copy 
of all those transactions were then drawn off, and given 
in charge to Capt. James Jack, then of Charlotte, that 
he should present them to Congress, then in session in 
Philadelphia. 

On that memorable day, I was 20 years and 14 days 
of age, a very deeply interested spectator, recollecting 
the dire hand of oppression that had driven me from 
my native clime, now pursuing me in this happy asy- 
lum, and seeking to bind again in the fetters of bond- 
age. 

On the return of Capt. Jack, he reported that Con- 
gress, individually, manifested their entire approbation 
of the conduct of the Mecklenburg citizens ; but 
deemed it premature to lay them officially before the 
House. 

Note. — The foregoing extract is copied from a manuscript 
account of the Revolutionary War in the South, addressed by 
the writer to a friend, who had requested historical information 
upon the subject. Mr. Hunter was in the battle of Camden, and 
has given an interesting narrative of the circumstances connect- 
ed with the death of Baron DeKalb. The manuscript gives the 
biography of the writer, from which it appears he was a native 



150 APPENDIX. 

of Ireland, and born on the 14th of May, 1755, and at an early age 
emigrated from his native land, to the Province of North 
Carolina. 



ADDITIONAL PAPERS, 

NOT PARTICULARLY REFERRED TO IN" THE PREFACE. 



From the Raleigh Register, of February 18, 1820. 

MECKLENBURG DECLARATION OF INDE- 
PENDENCE. 

When this Declaration was first published in April 
last, some doubts were expressed in the Eastern papers 
as to its authenticity, (none of the Histories of the 
Revolution having noticed the circumstance.) Col. 
William Polk, of this City, (who, though a mere youth 
at the time, was present at the meeting which made the 
Declaration, and whose Father, being Colonel of the 
county, appears to have acted a conspicuous part on the 
occasion,) observing this, assured us of the correctness 
of the facts generally, though he thought there were 
errors as to the name of the Secretary, etc., and said that 
he should probably be able to correct these, and throw 
some further light on the subject, by inquiries amongst 
some of his old friends in Mecklenburg county. He 
has accordingly made inquiries, and communicated to 
us the following Documents as the result, which, we 
presume, will do away all doubts on the subject. 



APPENDIX. 151 

CEETIFICATE. 

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, ) 
Mecklenburg County. j 

At the request of Col. William Polk, of Raleigh, made 
to Major-General George Graham, soliciting him to pro- 
cure all the information that could be obtained at this 
late period, of the transactions which took place in the 
county of Mecklenburg, in the year 1775, as it respected 
the people of that county having declared Independ- 
ence ; of the time when the Declaration was made ; 
who were the principal movers and leaders, and the 
members who composed the body of Patriots who made 
the Declaration, and signed the same. 

We, the undersigned citizens of the said county, and 
of the several ages set forth opposite to each of our 
names, do certify, and on our honor declare, that we 
were present in the town of Charlotte, in the said county 
of Mecklenburg, on the 19th day of May, 1775, when two 
persons elected from each Captain's Company in said 
county, appeared as Delegates, to take into considera- 
tion the state of the country, and to adopt such meas- 
ures as to them seemed best, to secure their lives, liberty, 
and property, from the storm which was gathering, and 
had burst upon their fellow-citizens to the Eastward, 
by a British Army, under the authority of the British 
King and Parliament. 

The order for the election of Delegates was given by 
Col. Thomas Polk, the commanding officer of the mili- 
tia of the county, with a request that their powers 
should be ample, touching any measure that should be 
proposed. 

We do further certify and declare, that to the best of 



152 APPENDIX. 

our recollection and belief, the delegation was complete 
from every company, and that the meeting took place 
in the Court-house, about 12 o'clock on the said 19th 
day of May, 1775, when Abraham Alexander was chosen 
Chairman, and Dr. Epliraim Brevard Secretary. That 
the Delegates continued in session until in the night of 
that day ; that on the 20th they again met, when a com- 
mittee, under the direction of the Delegates, had formed 
several resolves, which were read, and which went to 
declare themselves, and the people of Mecklenburg 
county, Free and Independent of the King and Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain — and that, from that day thence- 
forth, all allegiance and political relation was absolved 
between the good people of Mecklenburg and the King 
of Great Britain ; which Declaration was signed by 
every member of the Delegation, under the shouts and 
huzzas of a very large assembly of the people of the 
county, who had come to know the issue of the meet- 
ing. We further believe, that the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was drawn up by the Secretary, Dr. Epliraim 
Brevard, and that it was conceived and brought about 
through the instrumentality and popularity of Col. 
Thomas Polk, Abraham Alexander, John McKnit Alex- 
ander, Adam Alexander, Epliraim Brevard, John Phi- 
fer, and Hezekiah Alexander, with some others. 

We do further certify and declare, that in a few days 
after the Delegates adjourned, Captain James Jack, of 
the town of Charlotte, was engaged to carry the resolves 
to the President of Congress, and to our Representatives 
— one copy for each ; and that his expenses were paid by 
a voluntary subscription. And we do know that Capt. 
Jack executed the trust, and returned with answers, 
both from the President and our Delegates in Congress, 



APPENDIX. 153 

expressive of their entire approbation of the course that 
had been adopted, recommending a continuance in the 
same ; and that the time would soon be, when the whole 
Continent would follow our example. 

We further certify and declare, that the measures 
which were adopted at the time before mentioned, had 
a general influence on the people of this county to 
unite them in the cause of liberty and the country, at 
that time; that the same unanimity and patriotism 
continued unimpaired to the close of the war ; and that 
the resolutions had considerable effect in harmonizing 
the people in two or three adjoining counties. 

That a committee of Safety for the county were elected, 
who were clothed with civil and military power, and 
under their authority several disaffected persons in 
Rowan, and Tryon (now Lincoln county,) were sent for, 
examined, and conveyed (after it was satisfactorily 
proven they were inimical) to Camden, in South Caro- 
lina, for safe-keeping. 

We do further certify, that the acts passed by the 
committee of Safety, were received as the Civil Law of 
the land in many cases, and that Courts of Justice for 
the decision of controversies between the people were 
held, and we have no recollection that dissatisfaction 
existed in any instance with regard to the judgments of 
said courts. 

We are not, at this late period, able to give the names 
of all the Delegation who formed the Declaration of In- 
dependence ; but can safely declare as to the following 
persons being of the number, viz. : Thomas Polk, 
Abraham Alexander, John McKnitt Alexander, Adam 
Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, John Phifer, Hezekiah 
James Balsh, Benjamin Patton, Hezekiah Alexander, 



154 APPENDIX. 

Biehard Barry, William Graham, Matthew M'Olure, 
Robert Irwin, Zachias Wilson, Neil Morrison, John 
Flenniken, John Queary, Ezra Alexander. 

In testimony of all and every part herein set forth, 
we have hereunto set our hands. 

GEO. GRAHAM, aged 61, near 62. 
WM. HUTCHISON, 68. 
JONAS CLARK, 61. 

ROBT ROBINSON, 68. 



FROM JOHN" SIMESON TO COL. WILLIAM POLK. 

"Providence, January 20, 1820. 

" Dear Sir, — After considerable delay, occasioned 
partly to obtain what information I could, in addition 
to my own knowledge of the facts in relation to our 
Declaration of Independence, and partly by a precarious, 
feeble old age, I now write to you in answer to yours of 
the 24th ult. 

" I have conversed with many of my old friends and 
others, and all agree in the point, but few can state the 
particulars ; for although our county is renowned for 
general intelligence, we have still some that don't read 
the public prints. You know, in the language of the 
day, every Province had its Congress, and Mecklenburg 
had its county Congress, as legally chosen as any other, 
and assumed an attitude until then without a preced- 
ent ; but, alas ! those worthies who conceived and exe- 
cuted that bold measure, are no more; and one reason 
why so little new light can be thrown on an old truth, 
may be this — and I appeal to yourself for the correct- 
ness of the remark — Ave who are now called Revolution- 



APPENDIX. 155 

ary men, were then thoughtless, precipitate youths; we 
cared not who conceived the bold act, our business was 
to adopt and support it. Yourself, sir, in your eigh- 
teenth year and on the spot, your worthy father, the 
most popular and influential character in the county, 
and yet you cannot state much from recollection. Your 
father, as commanding officer of the county, issued 
orders to the Captains to appoint two men from each 
company to represent them in the committee. — It was 
done. Neill Morrison, John Flennikin, from this com- 
pany ; Charles Alexander, John McKnitt Alexander, 
Hezekiah Alexander, Abraham Alexander, Esq., John 
Phifer, David Reese, Adam Alexander, Dickey Barry, 
John Queary, with others, whose names I cannot ob- 
tain. As to the names of those who drew up the Dec- 
laration, I am inclined to think Doctor Brevard was 
the principal, from his known talents in composition. 
It was, however, in substance and form, like that great 
national act agreed on thirteen months after. Ours 
was toAvards the close of May, 1775. In addition to 
what I have said, the same committee appointed three 
men to secure all the military stores for the county's 
use — Thomas Polk, John Phifer, and Joseph Kennedy. 
I was under arms near the head of the line, near Col. 
Polk, and heard him distinctly read a long string of 
Grievances, the Declaration and Military Order above. 
I likewise heard Col. Polk have two warm disputes with 
two men of the county, who said the measures were 
rash and unnecessary. He was applauded and they 
silenced. I was then in my 22d year, an enemy to 
usurpation and tyranny of every kind, with a retentive 
memory, and fond of liberty, that had a doubt arisen in 
my mind that the act would be controverted, proof 



156 APPENDIX. 

would not have been wanting ; but I comfort myself 
tli at none but the self-important peace-party and blue- 
lights of the East, will have the assurance to oppose it 
any further. The biographer of Patrick Henry (Mr. 
Wirt) says he first suggested Independence in the Vir- 
ginia Convention ; but it is known they did not reduce 
it to action — so that it will pass for nothing. The Courts 
likewise acted independently. I myself heard a dispute 
take place on the bench, and an acting magistrate was 
actually taken and sent to prison by an order of the 
Chairman. 

" Thus, sir, have I thrown together all that I can at 
this time. I am too blind to write fair, and too old to 
write much sense — but if my deposition before the 
Supreme Court of the United States would add more 
weight to a truth so well known here, it should be at 
the service of my fellow-citizens of the county and 
State generally. 

" I am, sir, your friend and humble servant, 

"JOHN SIMESON, Sen. 

" P. S. — I will give you a short anecdote. An aged 
man near me, on being asked if he knew anything of 
this affair, replied, ' Och, aye, Tam Polk declared Inde- 
pendence long before any body else' This old man is 81." 



CERTIFICATE OF ISAAC ALEXANDER. 

I hereby certify that I was present in Charlotte on the 
19th and 20th days of May, 1775, when a regular depu- 
tation from all the Captains' companies of militia in 
the county of Mecklenburg, to wit: Col. Thomas Polk, 



APPENDIX. 157 

Adam Alexander, Lieut. Col. Abram Alexander, John 
McKnitt Alexander, Hezekiah Alexander, Epbraim 
Brevard, and a number of others, who met to consult 
and take measures for the peace and tranquillity of the 
citizens of said county, and who appointed Abraham 
Alexander their Chairman, and Doctor Ephraim Bre- 
vard Secretary; who, after due consultation, declared 
themselves absolved from their allegiance to the King 
of Great Britain, and drew up a Declaration of their 
Independence, which was unanimously adopted ; and 
employed Capt. James Jack to carry copies thereof to 
Congress, who accordingly went. These are a part of 
the transactions that took place at that time, as far as 
my recollection serves me. 

ISAAC ALEXANDER. 
October 8, 1830. 



CERTIFICATE OF SAM'L WILSON". 

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, ) 
Mecklenburg County. j 

I do hereby certify, that in May, 1775, a committee 
or delegation from the different militia companies in 
tiiis county met in Charlotte ; and after consulting 
together, they publicly declared their independence on 
Great Britain, and on her Government. This was done 
before a large collection of people, who highly approved 
of it. I was then and there present, and heard it read 
from the Court House door. Certified by me, 

SAM'L WILSON. 



158 APPENDIX. 

CERTIFICATE OF JOHN/ DAVIDSON. 

Beaver Dam, October 5, 1830. 

Dear Sir : — I received your note of the 25th of last 
month, requiring information relative to the Mecklen- 
burg Declaration of Independence. As I am, perhaps, 
the only person living, who was a member of that Con- 
vention, and being far advanced in years, and not hav- 
ing my mind frequently directed to that circumstance 
for some years, I can give you but a very succinct history 
of that transaction. There were two men chosen from 
each captain's company, to meet in Charlotte, to take the 
subject into consideration. John McKnitt Alexander 
and myself were chosen from one company; and many 
other members were there that I now recollect, whose 
names I deem unnecessary to mention. When the mem- 
bers met, and were perfectly organized for business, a 
motion was made to. declare ourselves independent of 
the Crown of Great Britain, which was carried by a 
large majority. Dr. Ephraim Brevard was then ap- 
pointed to give us a sketch of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, which he did. James Jack was appointed to 
take it on to the American Congress, then sitting in 
Philadelphia, with particular instructions to deliver it 
to the North Carolina Delegation in Congress, (Hooper 
and Caswell.) When Jack returned, he stated that the 
Declaration was presented to Congress, and the reply 
was, that they highly esteemed the patriotism of the 
citizens of Mecklenburg ; but they thought the measure 
too premature. 

I am confident that the Declaration of Independence 
by*the people of Mecklenburg was made public at least 



APPENDIX. 159 

twelve months before that of the Congress of the 
United States. 

I do certify that the foregoing statement, relative to 
the Mecklenburg Independence is correct, and which I 
am willing to be qualified to, should it be required. 

Yours respectfully, 

JOHN DAVIDSOK 
Doct. J. M. Alexander. 

Note. — The following is a copy of an original paper furnished 
by the writer of the foregoing certificate, from which it would 
seem, that, from the period of the Mecklenburg Declaration, 
every individual friendly to the American cause was furnished 
by the Chairman of that meeting, Abram Alexander, with tes- 
timonials of the character he had assumed ; and in this point of 
view the paper affords strong collateral testimony of the correct- 
ness of many of the foregoing certificates. 

NORTH CAROLINA, Mecklenburg County, ) 

November 28, 1775. ) 

These may certify to all whom they may concern, that the 
bearer hereof, William Henderson, is allowed here to be a true 
friend to liberty, and signed the Association. 

Certified by ABR'M ALEXANDER, Chairman 

of the Committee of P. S. 



LETTER FROM J. G. M. RAMSEY. 

Mecklenburg, T. Oct. 1, 1830. 

Dear Sir: — Yours of 21st ultimo was duly re- 
ceived. In answer I have only to say, that little is in 
my possession on the subject alluded to which you have 



160 APPENDIX. 

not already seen. Subjoined are the certificates of two 
gentlemen of this county, whose respectability and 
veracity are attested by their acquaintances here, as well 
as by the accompanying testimonials of the magistrates 
in whose neighborhood they reside. With this you will 
also receive extracts from letters on the same subject 
from gentlemen well known to you, and to the country 
at large. 

I am, very respectfully, yours, &c, 

J. G. M. RAMSEY. 



CERTIFICATE OF JAMES JOHNSON. 

I, James Johnson, now of Knox county, Tennessee, 
but formerly of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, 
do hereby certify, that to the best of my recollection, in 
the month of May, 1775, there were several meetings in 
Charlotte concerning the impending war. Being young, 
I was not called on to take an active part in the same ; 
but one thing I do positively remember, that she (Meck- 
lenburg county) did meet and hold a Convention, de- 
clared independence, and sent a man to Philadelphia 
with the proceedings. And I do further certify, that I am 
well acquainted with several of the men who formed or 
constituted said Convention, viz. John McKnitt Alex- 
ander, Hezekiah Alexander, Abraham Alexander, Adam 
Alexander, Robert Irwin, Neill Morrison, John Flenni- 
ken, John Queary. 

Certified by me this 11th day of October, 1827. 
JAMES JOHNSON, 

In my seventy-third year. 



APPENDIX. 161 



CERTIFICATE OF ELIJAH JOHNSON AND JAMES WILHITE. 

We, Elijah Johnson and James Wilhite, acting Jus- 
tices of the Peace for the county of Knox, do certify, 
that we have been a long time well acquainted with 
Samuel Montgomery and James Johnson, both residents 
of Knox county; and that they are entitled to full 
credit, and any statement they may make to implicit 
confidence. 

Given under our hands and seals this 4th day of Oc- 
tober, 1830. 

ELIJAH JOHNSON, (Seal.) 
JAMES WILHITE, (Seal.) 
Justices of the Peace for Knox county. 

Note. — Mr. Montgomery's certificate does not purport to state 
the facts as having come under his own personal observation. 
It is therefore omitted in this publication. 



AUTOGRAPHS 



SIGNERS OF THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION. 











•'/nonS* 




l?77^/ 






THE CELEBRATION OF THE 100TH ANNI- 
VERSARY OF THE MECKLENBURG DE- 
CLARATION. 



The 20th May Celebration, 1875. 

The following were the Committees appointed by 
a citizens' meeting held at Charlotte, N. C, to make 
arrangements for the 20th of May celebration, 1875 : 

General Executive Committee. — S. B. Alexander, 
Thos. W. Dewey, fm. Johnston, C. Dowd, J. C. 
Burroughs, Thos. J. Moore, Robt. I. McDowell, S. 
Wittkowsky, R. T. McAden and John E. Brown. 
Dr. Joseph Graham was added to the Committee as 
chairman thereof. 

Committee on Orators. — Gov. Z. B. Vance, Hon. 
W. M. Shipp and Gen. D. H. Hill. 

Committee on Subscription. — Gen. J. A. Young, 
chairman ; Chas. R. Jones, D. G. Maxwell, A. Ma- 
caulay, S. P. Smith, Jno. W. Wadsworth and F. A. 
McNinch. 

Committee, on Finance. — Jos. H. Wilson, chair- 
man; Gen. R. Barringer and John L. Brown. 

Committee on the Press. — W. J. Yates, chairman ; 
W. F. Avery and C. R. Jones. 

Committee on Fire and Military Companies. — J. 
H. Orr, chairman ; F. A. McNinch, N. C. Harry 
and D. M. Rigler. 

Committee on Artillery and Fire Works. — Col. 
Thos. H. Brem, Sr., chairman ; John Wilkes, T. L. 
Seigle, F. H. Dewey, Thos. H. Allen and P. Ludwig. 



166 COMMITTEES. 

Committee to Canvass the County. — Col. H. C. 
Jones, chairman ; R. A. Springs, Jas. F. Johnston, 
E. C. Davidson, T. L. Tail, Col W. R. Myers, Wm. 
Johnston, R. Barringer, C. Dowd and J. A. Young. 

Commissary Committee. — Jas. F. Johnston, chair- 
man ; R. M. Miller, D. M. Rigler, Josiah Asbnry, 
Jas. F. Davidson, Thos. Grier, Robt. E. Cochrane, 
L. W. Sanders, J. S. M. Davidson, Chas. W. Alex- 
ander, Capt. S. Roessler, P. S. Whisnant, Walter 
Brem, Frank Wilson, A. R. Nisbet and D. W. Oates. 

Reception Committee. — J. Y. Bryce, chairman; 
J. M. Miller, J. L. Morehead, W. H. H. Gregory, R. 
D. Graham, Geo. E. Wilson, W. W. Phifer, W. H. 
Bailey, Gen. Prince, S. A. Cohen and A. B. David- 
son. 

Auxiliary Township Committees. 

Mallard Creek. — Wm. D. Alexander, J. H. Che- 
shire and J. R. DeArmond. 

Lemley's. — Dr. J. M. Wilson, Dr. Brevard Alexan- 
der and W. B. Withers. 

Deweese. — H. P. Helper, W. P. Williams and Rev. 
Chas. Phillips, D.D. 

Long Creek. — R. D. Whitley, J. Springs Davidson 
and Dr. E. A. Sample. 

Paw Creek. — Wm. Todd, H. J\ Rhyne, and Jas. 
Beattie. 

Berryhill.—R. D. Collins, B. F. Brown and T. B. 
Price. 

Steel Creek.— Gen. W. H. Neal, Dr. J. M. Strong 
and S. Watson Reid. 



COMMITTEES. 167 

Pineville. — J. A. Younts, J. W. Morrow and J. 
R. Kirkpatrick. 

Providence. — H. M. Parks, E. C. Grier and Henry 
Bryant. 

Clear Greek. — Eli Hinson, D. W. Flow and Robt. 
Henderson. 

Morning Star. — J. H. Irwin, J. W. Hood and D. 
E. Hooks. 

Sharon. — I. N. Alexander, Dr. C. L. Hutchison 
and R. B. Hunter. 

Crab Orchard. — J. R. Baker, E. P. Cochrane and 
fm. McOombs. 

Charlotte. — B. H. Moore, J. P. Alexander and Dr. 
W. J. Hayes. 



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